Different forms of fire

Question

I was going through the lessons. One of the flashcards was fire. I said "El Fuego". But the answer was "El Incendio" Do you think you could tell me the difference please. Thanks, P.S. The flash card is here

Answer 1

"Incendio" is a big fire, and destroys something that should not be destroyed. A house, woods, a car, a crop field, etc.

"Fuego" is generic for fire.

Answer 2

Hello Matthew. You can do a search for "fire" or "fuego", and you'll get lots of answers, since this is a relatively common question:

Fuego, incendio, candela, disparo, fogón, chimenea, fogata...

From what I've learned in spanish there are a lot of words that seem to mean the same thing but have slight differences in the actual translation - mathew--borum, Oct 5, 2010

such as "La copa" and "El vaso" - mathew--borum, Oct 5, 2010

Gee, just like English. - samdie, Oct 5, 2010

Answer 3

el incendio usually indicates a large fire like a bushfire or forest fire...

Fuego is like a little fire controlled in the environment.

There are synonyms to fire, but that's the main difference between the two... And upon looking at the flashcards I see how they made the distinction. If you saw someone start a fire, maybe on a gas stovetop... that's usually referred to as un fuego.