Abstract: The Jurassic coal seams in northern Shaanxi contain a large number of palaeo-fire zones, which pose a serious threat to the safe mining of the underlying coal when water accumulates in these palaeo-fire zones.To effectively detect the distribution of ancient fire zones and analyze their water accumulation conditions, this study is based on the fundamental principles of direct current resistivity and the exploration mechanism of three-dimensional (3D) high-density resistivity. Using numerical simulation and engineering practices, the 3D high-density resistivity response characteristics of shallow coal seam fire zones were investigated.Multiple 3D geo-electrical models of burnt rocks were established, and forward simulations were conducted using the finite element method. The relative error between numerical and analytical solutions in a homogeneous half-space was analyzed to verify the accuracy of the forward modeling program. The 3D high-density resistivity response characteristics of geological anomalies were analyzed using pole-pole, pole-dipole, and dipole-dipole arrays in homogeneous half-space, two-layer, three-layer, and four-layer geo-electrical models.The results indicate that the pole-pole array demonstrates better sensitivity to geological anomalies but is less effective in complex stratigraphy. The dipole-dipole array shows strong responses to both geological anomalies and complex stratigraphy, offering higher lateral resolution. Compared to 2D high-density resistivity forward simulations, 3D simulations improve detection accuracy through multidirectional and multilayer data acquisition, resolving the anomaly shift issues associated with the pole-dipole array.Field practices were conducted in the 2⁻² coal fire zone of the northern second panel of the Hongliulin Coal Mine in northern Shaanxi using both 3D high-density dipole-dipole and pole-pole arrays. The actual exploration results aligned well with existing geological data of the area, demonstrating the feasibility of using 3D high-density resistivity to delineate the distribution and water accumulation of coal mine fire zones.