Fork Fire
The Fork Fire burned 83,323 acres in California, in 1996. It was discovered on August 11, 1996, and contained on September 7, 1996. The cause was recorded as arson/incendiarism.
- Size
- 83,323 acres
- Discovered
- August 11, 1996
- Contained
- September 7, 1996
- Cause
- Human
Map
The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 83,147 acres. Point of origin as reported, 39.258, -122.917.
The record
- Reported final size
- 83,323 acres
- Burned area mapped by MTBS
- 83,147 acres
- Area inside the final perimeter
- 83,057 acres
- Discovered
- August 11, 1996, 9:00 p.m. local time
- Contained
- September 7, 1996, 6:00 p.m. local time
- Cause
- Human, Arson/incendiarism
- State
- California
- Land ownership at origin
- Forest Service
- Reporting unit
- Mendocino National Forest
- Agency
- Forest Service
- Unit
- CAMNF
- Incident type
- Wildfire
- MTBS fire identifier
- CA3920212274419960811
- MTBS assessment
- Extended
- Fire occurrence record
- FS-320599
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 California in 199612
| Fire | Acres | Start | Cause |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fifty-Eight Fire | 106,668 | Aug 15, 1996 | Human |
| Wild Fire | 25,620 | Oct 7, 1996 | Human |
| Ambrose Complex (Damon-Long) Fire | 23,398 | Aug 26, 1996 | Natural |
| Rogge Fire | 22,080 | Aug 13, 1996 | Natural |
| Marple Fire | 22,000 | Aug 26, 1996 | Human |
| Skyline Fire | 19,839 | Apr 27, 1996 | Human |
| Unnamed Fire | 19,244 | May 28, 1996 | |
| Panoche II Fire | 18,340 | Apr 27, 1996 | Human |
| Mercy Fire | 16,820 | Jun 18, 1996 | Human |
| Otay 322 Fire | 14,720 | Oct 22, 1996 | Human |
| Calabasas Fire | 13,190 | Oct 21, 1996 | Human |
| Wolfskill Fire | 12,395 | Aug 12, 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.