Wildfires of 1996

Wolf Creek Fire

1996South DakotaWildfire

The Wolf Creek Fire burned 1,440 acres in South Dakota, in 1996. It was discovered on September 5, 1996, and contained on September 9, 1996. The cause was recorded as smoking.

Size
1,440 acres
Discovered
September 5, 1996
Contained
September 9, 1996
Cause
Human

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 1,608 acres. Point of origin as reported, 43.000, -102.427.

The record

Reported final size
1,440 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
1,608 acres
Discovered
September 5, 1996, 1:50 p.m. local time
Contained
September 9, 1996, 12:00 p.m. local time
Cause
Human, Smoking
State
South Dakota
Land ownership at origin
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Reporting unit
Pine Ridge Agency
Agency
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
SD4300010242719960905
MTBS assessment
Initial
Fire occurrence record
W-312550

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 South Dakota in 19964

FireAcresStartCause
Boundary Fire2,778May 1, 1996
Gravel Pit Fire2,266Aug 3, 1996Natural
Hay Bale Fire1,500Aug 3, 1996Natural
East Gate Fire996Feb 10, 1996Human

Every fire of 1996 South Dakota fire history

Nearby

Sources

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.