Fire safety in Project Zomboid

Most base fires are started by the player. The usual causes are heat sources left running, campfires built in the wrong place, and thrown or planted explosives that land closer than planned. Zombies that walk into an open fireplace or campfire can also catch light and carry the flames to whatever they stumble into next.

Build 42 rebuilt the fire system around the material that catches, which changes how flames grow and spread (one source). Older Build 41 advice still covers the causes above, but expect a fire that reaches a wooden building to become a much bigger problem than it used to. For heating and cooking fires you start on purpose, see the fire and heating guide and cooking. For grenades and bombs, see explosives.

Fire moves to anything flammable next to it: furniture, wooden walls, floors, grass, trees, zombies and you. It makes light and noise, so a big blaze also pulls in zombies from the area. With nothing left to burn, a fire dies down on its own after a few dozen in-game minutes.

The Indie Stone's plans for the rewrite, shared in 2022 and 2023, had spread driven by material type, temperature, size and wind direction and speed, with rain able to put fires out, and fires that keep burning after the player leaves the area. Build 42 shipped with a rebuilt fire system, but no source we found gives exact spread rates for 42.22, so this page gives no timings. Treat any fire inside a wooden house as minutes away from taking the whole building.

Rain and fog affect fires that are already burning. See weather for how often it rains in your season.

Fire can be limited in the world settings. Solo games have a fire spread option in sandbox settings. Turn it off and fires stay on the tile where they start. Servers also have a NoFire option that blocks fire completely, plus a separate rule for whether fire can spread through safehouses. On a server, both the fire option and the spread option have to be on for fire to behave normally.

Opinion If you are learning the game, or play on a server where one careless player can burn down a shared base, turning fire spread off is a fair choice. It removes a risk the game barely warns you about. If you keep it on, the rest of this page is your safety plan. Server hosts can find these rules in hosting a server.

Right-click the fire and pick the extinguish option. With a tool selected, move the target circle over the flames until it turns green, then click. If you carry several options, the game reportedly uses a fire extinguisher first, then a sandbag, then water (one source). To put out a campfire you built, right-click it and choose to put it out; that needs no items.

We could not confirm that loose dirt or gravel puts out fires in Build 42. Sand in sandbags does. For filling buckets, see water.

Burns come from fire, boiling water and electricity. If your character catches fire, jog or run and keep moving until the flames go out. Running in rain helps. You will still take burns that need treatment, and fire kills survivors as well as zombies.

1. Stop any heavy bleeding elsewhere first.
2. Open the health panel and bandage the burned part. A sterilized bandage is best.
3. When the panel shows the burn needs cleaning, use the Clean Burn option. It uses up a strong dressing (bandage or sterilized bandage; ripped sheets and clean strips also work) and causes a short spike of pain that is smaller at higher First Aid.
4. Put a fresh dressing on and change it when it gets dirty. Use disinfectant or alcohol wipes, and antibiotics if the wound becomes infected.

A bandaged burn heals in roughly 1.9 to 3.9 in-game days on default settings; left open it heals about 20 times slower (one source). Burns carry no risk of zombie infection, but dirty burns get ordinary wound infections. Full steps are in first aid and health.

So metal is not fully fireproof, but it does slow a fire down. Brick and stone come from masonry, and metal walls from welding.

Opinion Build campfires outside on bare ground, at least a few tiles from any wooden wall, fence, tree or long grass. Never build one indoors or under a roof. For indoor heat, use the house's own fireplace, or a stove or oven you never leave running unattended. Clear furniture and stored boxes from around anything that gets hot. Keep fuel and explosives in a separate shed, and run generators outside, as covered in generators and base building.

Opinion Keep a fire extinguisher and a full water container by the kitchen and by any fireplace. Turn ovens off before you sleep or leave, and never microwave food in a metal pot.

If your base catches fire:

1. Get out of the burning room and stop to put yourself out if you are on fire.
2. Hit small flames early with an extinguisher, sandbag or water, starting at the edge nearest your loot.
3. If the fire has reached walls or the roof, stop fighting it. Carry out medicine, food and tools if you can do it safely, then back away.
4. Expect zombies drawn by the light and noise. Fight from outside or leave.
5. Treat burns once you are safe, then rebuild from brick or metal.