Refuge Fire
The Refuge Fire burned 9,700 acres in Madera County, California, in 1998. It was discovered on August 4, 1998, and contained on August 7, 1998. The cause was recorded as equipment and vehicle use.
- Size
- 9,700 acres
- Discovered
- August 4, 1998
- Contained
- August 7, 1998
- Cause
- Human
Map
The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 9,956 acres. Point of origin as reported, 41.888, -121.697.
The record
- Reported final size
- 9,700 acres
- Burned area mapped by MTBS
- 9,956 acres
- Area inside the final perimeter
- 9,675 acres
- Discovered
- August 4, 1998, 1:46 p.m. local time
- Contained
- August 7, 1998, 6:00 p.m. local time
- Cause
- Human, Equipment and vehicle use
- State
- California
- County
- Madera County
- Reporting unit
- Modoc National Forest
- Agency
- Forest Service
- Unit
- CAMDF
- Incident type
- Wildfire
- MTBS fire identifier
- CA4188312166019980804
- MTBS assessment
- Initial
- Fire occurrence record
- FS-339115
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
| Fire | Acres | Start | Cause |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edna Fire | 28,164 | Oct 5, 1998 | Human |
| Piru Fire | 12,613 | Oct 18, 1998 | Human |
| Unnamed Fire | 11,141 | ||
| Unnamed Fire | 8,950 | Jun 11, 1998 | |
| Unnamed Fire | 7,094 | Sep 2, 1998 | |
| Breck Fire | 7,000 | Jul 8, 1998 | Human |
| Middle Fire | 6,600 | Aug 29, 1998 | Human |
| Unnamed Fire | 6,284 | ||
| Juniper Fire | 6,000 | Aug 31, 1998 | Natural |
| Unnamed Fire | 5,341 | Aug 6, 1998 | |
| Weirick Fire | 5,000 | Aug 31, 1998 | Natural |
| Mercy Fire | 4,800 | Jul 10, 1998 | Human |
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.