Big Creek Fire
The Big Creek Fire burned 48,600 acres in Alaska, in 1996. It was discovered on June 16, 1996, and contained on September 13, 1996. The cause was recorded as natural.
- Size
- 48,600 acres
- Discovered
- June 16, 1996
- Contained
- September 13, 1996
- Cause
- Natural
Map
The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 49,348 acres. Point of origin as reported, 66.336, -143.636.
The record
- Reported final size
- 48,600 acres
- Burned area mapped by MTBS
- 49,348 acres
- Area inside the final perimeter
- 47,831 acres
- Discovered
- June 16, 1996, 5:27 p.m. local time
- Contained
- September 13, 1996, 8:42 a.m. local time
- Cause
- Natural
- State
- Alaska
- Land ownership at origin
- State
- Reporting unit
- Alaska Fire Service
- Agency
- Bureau of Land Management
- Unit
- AKUYD
- Incident type
- Wildfire
- Unique fire identifier
- 1996-AKUYD-631460
- MTBS fire identifier
- AK6632614363319960616
- MTBS assessment
- Extended
- Fire occurrence record
- W-13466
- 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
| Fire | Acres | Start | Cause |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mile Creek Fire | 66,560 | May 29, 1996 | Human |
| Chitanana River Fire | 59,063 | Jun 17, 1996 | Natural |
| A 508 Fire | 41,410 | Jun 19, 1996 | Natural |
| Slender Smoke Fire | 39,660 | Jul 11, 1996 | Natural |
| Monkey Girl Fire | 39,116 | Jun 16, 1996 | Natural |
| Millers Reach 2 Fire | 37,336 | Jun 2, 1996 | Human |
| Circ Mountain Fire | 34,665 | Jun 18, 1996 | Natural |
| Deadman Island Fire | 33,490 | Jun 19, 1996 | Natural |
| Wein Lk Fire | 25,433 | Jun 17, 1996 | Natural |
| A 521 Fire | 22,666 | Jun 21, 1996 | Natural |
| Crooked Creek Fire | 17,510 | Jun 6, 1996 | Human |
| Hillbilly Lake Fire | 14,200 | May 10, 1996 | Human |
Nearby
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.