Wildfires of 1999

Iron Fire

1999Sierra County, New MexicoWildfire

The Iron Fire burned 2,000 acres in Sierra County, New Mexico, in 1999. It was discovered on May 8, 1999, and contained on May 9, 1999. The cause was recorded as equipment and vehicle use.

Size
2,000 acres
Discovered
May 8, 1999
Contained
May 9, 1999
Cause
Human

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 2,471 acres. Point of origin as reported, 33.500, -107.701.

The record

Reported final size
2,000 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
2,471 acres
Discovered
May 8, 1999, 2:50 p.m. local time
Contained
May 9, 1999, 1:30 a.m. local time
Cause
Human, Equipment and vehicle use
State
New Mexico
County
Sierra County
Land ownership at origin
Bureau of Land Management
Reporting unit
Las Cruces Field Office
Agency
Bureau of Land Management
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
NM3348310769019990508
MTBS assessment
Initial
Fire occurrence record
W-1247

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 New Mexico in 199912

FireAcresStartCause
Garcia Fire23,680May 7, 1999Natural
Hermosa Fire6,466Jun 2, 1999
T-Four Fire5,000Feb 17, 1999
Bootheel Fire3,520Feb 25, 1999
Snider Fire3,500Feb 6, 1999
La Jara Fire3,382Jun 3, 1999Human
I-Do Fire3,300Feb 13, 1999
Unnamed Fire2,852Oct 12, 1999
Coyote Fire2,585Mar 10, 1999Human
North Fort Fire2,500Sep 7, 1999
Unnamed Fire2,428Mar 5, 1999
Popcorn Fire2,247

Every fire of 1999 New Mexico 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.