Wildfires of 1998

Butte Fire

1998OregonWildfire

The Butte Fire burned 15,000 acres in Oregon, in 1998. It was discovered on August 8, 1998, and contained on August 13, 1998. The cause was recorded as human.

Size
15,000 acres
Discovered
August 8, 1998
Contained
August 13, 1998
Cause
Human

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 13,680 acres. Point of origin as reported, 44.914, -120.540.

The record

Reported final size
15,000 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
13,680 acres
Discovered
August 8, 1998, 2:33 p.m. local time
Contained
August 13, 1998, 6:00 p.m. local time
Cause
Human, Undetermined
State
Oregon
Land ownership at origin
Bureau of Land Management
Reporting unit
Prineville District
Agency
Bureau of Land Management
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
OR4489512055219980808
MTBS assessment
Initial
Fire occurrence record
W-8259

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 Oregon in 199812

FireAcresStartCause
The Buttes Fire28,536
Skull Creek Fire22,000Aug 8, 1998Human
South Tub Mt Fire6,416Aug 7, 1998Natural
Bear Creek Fire3,345Aug 15, 1998
Blitzen Fire2,978Aug 19, 1998Natural
Low Creek Fire2,600Sep 7, 1998Natural
Marsh Complex2,565Oct 21, 1998
Tub Mtn Fire2,422Aug 6, 1998Natural
Raz Lewis Fire2,349Jul 22, 1998Natural
Rowena Fire2,208Aug 9, 1998Human
Bonita Fire2,198Aug 14, 1998Natural
Stockaid Fire2,056Jul 29, 1998Natural

Every fire of 1998 Oregon 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.