Wildfires of 1998

Piru Fire

1998CaliforniaWildfire

The Piru Fire burned 12,613 acres in California, in 1998. It was discovered on October 18, 1998, and contained on October 26, 1998. The cause was recorded as equipment and vehicle use.

Size
12,613 acres
Discovered
October 18, 1998
Contained
October 26, 1998
Cause
Human

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 10,567 acres. Point of origin as reported, 38.167, -120.018.

The record

Reported final size
12,613 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
10,567 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
12,613 acres
Discovered
October 18, 1998, 11:25 a.m. local time
Contained
October 26, 1998, 6:00 a.m. local time
Cause
Human, Equipment and vehicle use
State
California
Land ownership at origin
Private
Reporting unit
Central California District
Agency
Forest Service
Unit
CAVNC
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
CA3442211887219981018
MTBS assessment
Initial
Fire occurrence record
W-5054
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 199812

FireAcresStartCause
Edna Fire28,164Oct 5, 1998Human
Unnamed Fire11,141
Refuge Fire9,700Aug 4, 1998Human
Unnamed Fire8,950Jun 11, 1998
Unnamed Fire7,094Sep 2, 1998
Breck Fire7,000Jul 8, 1998Human
Middle Fire6,600Aug 29, 1998Human
Unnamed Fire6,284
Juniper Fire6,000Aug 31, 1998Natural
Unnamed Fire5,341Aug 6, 1998
Weirick Fire5,000Aug 31, 1998Natural
Mercy Fire4,800Jul 10, 1998Human

Every fire of 1998 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.