Salt Complex (Sheep Creek) Fire
The Salt Complex (Sheep Creek) Fire burned 16,100 acres in Idaho, in 1996. It was discovered on August 14, 1996, and contained on September 9, 1996. The cause was recorded as natural.
- Size
- 16,100 acres
- Discovered
- August 14, 1996
- Contained
- September 9, 1996
- Cause
- Natural
Map
The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 17,538 acres. Point of origin as reported, 45.437, -116.522.
The record
- Reported final size
- 16,100 acres
- Burned area mapped by MTBS
- 17,538 acres
- Area inside the final perimeter
- 17,092 acres
- Discovered
- August 14, 1996, 9:00 a.m. local time
- Contained
- September 9, 1996, 6:00 p.m. local time
- Cause
- Natural
- State
- Idaho
- Land ownership at origin
- Forest Service
- Reporting unit
- Wallowa-Whitman National Forest
- Agency
- Forest Service
- Unit
- ORWWF
- Part of
- Salt Complex
- Incident type
- Wildfire
- Unique fire identifier
- 1996-ORWWF-000105
- MTBS fire identifier
- ID4546611650219960814
- MTBS assessment
- Extended
- Fire occurrence record
- FS-319800
- Perimeter map method
- Other
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 Idaho in 199612
| Fire | Acres | Start | Cause |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coxs Well Fire | 206,203 | Aug 27, 1996 | Natural |
| Richfield Fire | 178,459 | Jul 3, 1996 | Natural |
| SwetCreek Fire | 38,710 | Jul 23, 1996 | Natural |
| 3 Creek Well Fire | 25,315 | Aug 20, 1996 | Human |
| Notch Butte Fire | 24,608 | Jul 2, 1996 | Human |
| Canyon Creek Fire | 23,024 | Aug 26, 1996 | Natural |
| Browns Gulch Fire | 22,374 | Jul 3, 1996 | Natural |
| Bridge Fire | 20,000 | Aug 27, 1996 | Natural |
| Davis Mountain Fire | 19,818 | Jul 25, 1996 | Human |
| Coyote Butte Fire | 18,165 | Jul 30, 1996 | Natural |
| Tip Top Fire | 16,261 | Oct 5, 1996 | Human |
| Eighth Street Fire | 15,304 |
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.