Wildfires of 1997

Murrell Fire

1997South CarolinaWildfire

The Murrell Fire burned 2,765 acres in South Carolina, in 1997. It was discovered on March 31, 1997, and contained on April 11, 1997. The cause was recorded as human.

Size
2,765 acres
Discovered
March 31, 1997
Contained
April 11, 1997
Cause
Human

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 5,124 acres. Point of origin as reported, 33.083, -79.583.

The record

Reported final size
2,765 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
5,124 acres
Discovered
March 31, 1997, 3:05 p.m. local time
Contained
April 11, 1997, 6:30 p.m. local time
Cause
Human, Undetermined
State
South Carolina
Land ownership at origin
Forest Service
Reporting unit
Francis Marion & Sumter National Forests
Agency
Forest Service
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
SC3310407957419970331
MTBS assessment
Initial
Fire occurrence record
FS-322786

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 Carolina in 19976

FireAcresStartCause
Unnamed Fire3,150Mar 10, 1997Human
Fire 1202971,448Feb 27, 1997
Fire 1501971,423Apr 15, 1997
Fire 502971,319Feb 5, 1997
Fire 1403971,069Jan 18, 1997
Fire 1301971,024Jan 14, 1997

Every fire of 1997 South Carolina 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.