Buffalo Creek Fire
The Buffalo Creek Fire burned 11,875 acres in Colorado, in 1996. It was discovered on May 18, 1996, and contained on May 24, 1996. The cause was recorded as recreation and ceremony.
- Size
- 11,875 acres
- Discovered
- May 18, 1996
- Contained
- May 24, 1996
- Cause
- Human
Map
The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 11,684 acres. Point of origin as reported, 39.338, -105.338.
The record
- Reported final size
- 11,875 acres
- Burned area mapped by MTBS
- 11,684 acres
- Area inside the final perimeter
- 11,853 acres
- Discovered
- May 18, 1996, 1:30 p.m. local time
- Contained
- May 24, 1996, 6:00 p.m. local time
- Cause
- Human, Recreation and ceremony
- State
- Colorado
- Land ownership at origin
- Forest Service
- Reporting unit
- Pike and San Isabel National Forest
- Agency
- Forest Service
- Unit
- COPSF
- Incident type
- Wildfire
- MTBS fire identifier
- CO3937210525219960518
- MTBS assessment
- Extended
- Fire occurrence record
- FS-318738
- Perimeter map method
- Other
- Perimeter records
- 2 on file for this fire; the largest is shown
- Note on the perimeter
- Support fire
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 Colorado in 199612
| Fire | Acres | Start | Cause |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opinion Fire | 13,775 | Aug 3, 1996 | Natural |
| Canyon Fire | 9,523 | Apr 1, 1996 | Human |
| Hatchet Fire | 5,580 | Jul 23, 1996 | Natural |
| Unnamed Fire | 4,929 | Feb 24, 1996 | |
| Chapin 5 Fire | 4,781 | Aug 18, 1996 | Natural |
| Disappointment Fire | 3,840 | Jul 20, 1996 | Natural |
| Unnamed Fire | 2,693 | Feb 24, 1996 | |
| Unnamed Fire | 2,253 | Feb 18, 1996 | |
| L.d.falls Fire | 2,201 | Jul 6, 1996 | Natural |
| ZENOBIA2 Fire | 2,149 | Jul 12, 1996 | Natural |
| Three Springs 2 Fire | 2,000 | Aug 2, 1996 | Natural |
| Unnamed Fire | 1,845 | Jun 5, 1996 |
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.