Skull Creek Fire
The Skull Creek Fire burned 22,000 acres in Oregon, in 1998. It was discovered on August 8, 1998, and contained on August 15, 1998. MTBS dates its ignition to August 7, 1998. The cause was recorded as equipment and vehicle use.
- Size
- 22,000 acres
- Discovered
- August 8, 1998
- Contained
- August 15, 1998
- Cause
- Human
Map
The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 20,569 acres. Point of origin as reported, 42.400, -118.836.
The record
- Reported final size
- 22,000 acres
- Burned area mapped by MTBS
- 20,569 acres
- Area inside the final perimeter
- 18,792 acres
- Discovered
- August 8, 1998, 12:00 p.m. local time
- Ignition (MTBS)
- August 7, 1998
- Contained
- August 15, 1998, 6:00 p.m. local time
- Cause
- Human, Equipment and vehicle use
- State
- Oregon
- Land ownership at origin
- Private
- Reporting unit
- Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge
- Agency
- Bureau of Land Management
- Unit
- ORBUD
- Incident type
- Wildfire
- MTBS fire identifier
- OR4245811886319980807
- MTBS assessment
- Initial
- Fire occurrence record
- FWS-1998ORSLR1385
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
| Fire | Acres | Start | Cause |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Buttes Fire | 28,536 | ||
| Butte Fire | 15,000 | Aug 8, 1998 | Human |
| South Tub Mt Fire | 6,416 | Aug 7, 1998 | Natural |
| Bear Creek Fire | 3,345 | Aug 15, 1998 | |
| Blitzen Fire | 2,978 | Aug 19, 1998 | Natural |
| Low Creek Fire | 2,600 | Sep 7, 1998 | Natural |
| Marsh Complex | 2,565 | Oct 21, 1998 | |
| Tub Mtn Fire | 2,422 | Aug 6, 1998 | Natural |
| Raz Lewis Fire | 2,349 | Jul 22, 1998 | Natural |
| Rowena Fire | 2,208 | Aug 9, 1998 | Human |
| Bonita Fire | 2,198 | Aug 14, 1998 | Natural |
| Stockaid Fire | 2,056 | Jul 29, 1998 | Natural |
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.