Wildfires of 1996

A 497 Fire

1996AlaskaWildfire

The A 497 Fire burned 4,690 acres in Alaska, in 1996. It was discovered on June 18, 1996, and contained on July 12, 1996. The cause was recorded as natural.

Size
4,690 acres
Discovered
June 18, 1996
Contained
July 12, 1996
Cause
Natural

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 4,398 acres. Point of origin as reported, 67.086, -141.866.

The record

Reported final size
4,690 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
4,398 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
4,796 acres
Discovered
June 18, 1996, 5:15 p.m. local time
Contained
July 12, 1996, 6:10 p.m. local time
Cause
Natural
State
Alaska
Land ownership at origin
Fish and Wildlife Service
Reporting unit
Alaska Fire Service
Agency
Bureau of Land Management
Unit
AKUYD
Incident type
Wildfire
Unique fire identifier
1996-AKUYD-00A497
MTBS fire identifier
AK6708314192519960618
MTBS assessment
Extended
Fire occurrence record
W-13498
Perimeter map method
Not Recorded
Note on the perimeter
Fire perimeter imported from fire history.

The three sizes are three measurements: the size the agency reported when the fire was out, the burned area MTBS drew from satellite imagery before and after, and the GIS area inside the final perimeter, unburned islands included. They rarely agree exactly.

Other large fires in Alaska in 199612

FireAcresStartCause
Mile Creek Fire66,560May 29, 1996Human
Chitanana River Fire59,063Jun 17, 1996Natural
Big Creek Fire48,600Jun 16, 1996Natural
A 508 Fire41,410Jun 19, 1996Natural
Slender Smoke Fire39,660Jul 11, 1996Natural
Monkey Girl Fire39,116Jun 16, 1996Natural
Millers Reach 2 Fire37,336Jun 2, 1996Human
Circ Mountain Fire34,665Jun 18, 1996Natural
Deadman Island Fire33,490Jun 19, 1996Natural
Wein Lk Fire25,433Jun 17, 1996Natural
A 521 Fire22,666Jun 21, 1996Natural
Crooked Creek Fire17,510Jun 6, 1996Human

Every fire of 1996 Alaska fire history

Sources

Perimeters from the National Interagency Fire Center’s Interagency Fire Perimeter History, compiled from the Forest Service, BLM, BIA, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, the Alaska Interagency Fire Center and CAL FIRE. Burned areas and ignition dates from Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS), a program of the US Geological Survey and the USDA Forest Service. Fire reports from Short, Karen C. 2022, Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014], 6th Edition, Forest Service Research Data Archive, doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6. Records before 2014 were joined by this site: a fire report to the burned area its MTBS identifier names, a perimeter to the burned area it lies in when the names or the sizes agree.