Mercy Fire
The Mercy Fire burned 16,820 acres in California, in 1996. It was discovered on June 18, 1996, and contained on June 19, 1996. The cause was recorded as equipment and vehicle use.
- Size
- 16,820 acres
- Discovered
- June 18, 1996
- Contained
- June 19, 1996
- Cause
- Human
Map
The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 17,000 acres. Point of origin as reported, 36.917, -120.734.
The record
- Reported final size
- 16,820 acres
- Burned area mapped by MTBS
- 17,000 acres
- Area inside the final perimeter
- 23,526 acres
- Discovered
- June 18, 1996, 4:19 p.m. local time
- Contained
- June 19, 1996, 6:00 p.m. local time
- Cause
- Human, Equipment and vehicle use
- State
- California
- Land ownership at origin
- Private
- Reporting unit
- Central California District
- Agency
- CAL FIRE
- Unit
- CAMMU
- Incident type
- Wildfire
- MTBS fire identifier
- CA3686312082419960618
- MTBS assessment
- Initial
- Fire occurrence record
- W-14185
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 |
| Fork Fire | 83,323 | Aug 11, 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 |
| 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.