Wildfires of 1998

Pumpkin Field Branch Fire

1998Mingo County, West VirginiaWildfire

The Pumpkin Field Branch Fire burned 1,314 acres in Mingo County, West Virginia, in 1998. It was discovered on March 30, 1998, and contained on March 31, 1998. The cause was recorded as arson/incendiarism.

Size
1,314 acres
Discovered
March 30, 1998
Contained
March 31, 1998
Cause
Human

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 1,579 acres. Point of origin as reported, 37.931, -82.250.

The record

Reported final size
1,314 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
1,579 acres
Discovered
March 30, 1998, 3:12 p.m. local time
Contained
March 31, 1998, 3:12 p.m. local time
Cause
Human, Arson/incendiarism
State
West Virginia
County
Mingo County
Land ownership at origin
Private
Reporting unit
West Virginia Division of Forestry
Agency
State or local agency
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
WV3793808225419980330
MTBS assessment
Initial (SS)
Fire occurrence record
SFO-1998WVDOF1998-18112

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 West Virginia in 19981

FireAcresStartCause
Bandytown Fire470Mar 28, 1998Human

Every fire of 1998 West Virginia 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.