Wildfires of 1998

Billy Fire

1998Idaho County, IdahoWildfire

The Billy Fire burned 1,489 acres in Idaho County, Idaho, in 1998. It was discovered on August 21, 1998, and contained on October 13, 1998. The cause was recorded as natural.

Size
1,489 acres
Discovered
August 21, 1998
Contained
October 13, 1998
Cause
Natural

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 1,931 acres. Point of origin as reported, 46.133, -114.957.

The record

Reported final size
1,489 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
1,931 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
1,591 acres
Discovered
August 21, 1998, 9:15 a.m. local time
Contained
October 13, 1998, 7:29 a.m. local time
Cause
Natural
State
Idaho
County
Idaho County
Land ownership at origin
Forest Service
Reporting unit
Nez Perce - Clearwater National Forests
Agency
Forest Service
Unit
IDNCF
Incident type
Wildfire
Unique fire identifier
1998-IDNCF-000143
MTBS fire identifier
ID4612811496319980821
MTBS assessment
Extended
Fire occurrence record
FS-335302

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 199812

FireAcresStartCause
Tilden 2 Fire22,989Jul 31, 1998Natural
Eagle Two Fire12,607Aug 31, 1998Natural
Buckskin Fire9,918Sep 2, 1998Human
Pocatello Valley Fire8,595Sep 7, 1998Human
Main Salmon Complex (Rainier) Fire7,980Aug 7, 1998Natural
Rock Rabbit Fire7,198Aug 11, 1998Natural
North Fork Complex (Sheepeater) Fire5,954Aug 16, 1998Natural
Main Salmon Complex (Bend Creek) Fire4,160Aug 12, 1998Natural
Laid Low Fire3,900Aug 23, 1998Natural
Schofield Fire3,825Aug 7, 1998Natural
Arctic Creek Fire3,760Aug 7, 1998Natural
Lone Pine Fire3,737Aug 10, 1998Natural

Every fire of 1998 Idaho 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.