Wildfires of 1997

Baker Fire

1997CaliforniaWildfire

The Baker Fire burned 6,317 acres in California, in 1997. It was discovered on October 13, 1997, and contained on October 20, 1997. The cause was recorded as debris and open burning.

Size
6,317 acres
Discovered
October 13, 1997
Contained
October 20, 1997
Cause
Human

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 5,565 acres. Point of origin as reported, 33.768, -117.660.

The record

Reported final size
6,317 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
5,565 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
6,320 acres
Discovered
October 13, 1997, 11:14 p.m. local time
Contained
October 20, 1997, 6:00 p.m. local time
Cause
Human, Debris and open burning
State
California
Reporting unit
Cleveland National Forest
Agency
Forest Service
Unit
CAORC
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
CA3377611768319971013
MTBS assessment
Initial
Fire occurrence record
FS-328477
Perimeter records
2 on file for this fire; the largest is shown

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 199712

FireAcresStartCause
Logan Fire49,490Aug 4, 1997Human
Fernandez Fire43,700Oct 24, 1997Human
Hopper Fire24,800Aug 5, 1997Human
Narrows Fire18,186Aug 13, 1997Human
Chocktaw Fire10,416Aug 19, 1997Human
Midway Complex7,485Jun 20, 1997Human
Pauba Fire7,231Aug 31, 1997Human
Williams Fire5,745Sep 27, 1997Human
Jacks Fire5,693Aug 9, 1997Natural
Canyon 2 Fire5,200Jul 1, 1997Human
Lokern Two Fire4,566
Choke Fire4,100Aug 6, 1997Natural

Every fire of 1997 California fire history

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.