Tom Fire
The Tom Fire burned 3,420 acres in California, in 1998. It was discovered on August 29, 1998, and contained on September 10, 1998. The cause was recorded as human.
- Size
- 3,420 acres
- Discovered
- August 29, 1998
- Contained
- September 10, 1998
- Cause
- Human
Map
The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 3,367 acres. Point of origin as reported, 37.340, -118.613.
The record
- Reported final size
- 3,420 acres
- Burned area mapped by MTBS
- 3,367 acres
- Area inside the final perimeter
- 3,412 acres
- Discovered
- August 29, 1998, 8:25 a.m. local time
- Contained
- September 10, 1998, 1:00 p.m. local time
- Cause
- Human, Undetermined
- State
- California
- Land ownership at origin
- Other Federal
- Reporting unit
- Inyo National Forest
- Agency
- Forest Service
- Unit
- CAINF
- Incident type
- Wildfire
- MTBS fire identifier
- CA3732211861819980829
- MTBS assessment
- Extended
- Fire occurrence record
- FS-338155
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 | ||
| Refuge Fire | 9,700 | Aug 4, 1998 | Human |
| 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 |
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.