Wildfires of 2001

West Hell Canyon Fire

2001South DakotaWildfire

The West Hell Canyon Fire burned 10,547 acres in South Dakota, in 2001. It was discovered on September 26, 2001, and contained on October 3, 2001. The cause was recorded as power generation/transmission/distribution.

Size
10,547 acres
Discovered
September 26, 2001
Contained
October 3, 2001
Cause
Human

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 11,083 acres. Point of origin as reported, 43.350, -103.658.

The record

Reported final size
10,547 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
11,083 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
10,548 acres
Discovered
September 26, 2001, 12:00 p.m. local time
Contained
October 3, 2001, 6:00 p.m. local time
Cause
Human, Power generation/transmission/distribution
State
South Dakota
Land ownership at origin
Forest Service
Reporting unit
Black Hills National Forest
Agency
Forest Service
Unit
SDBKF
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
SD4336610366720010926
MTBS assessment
Initial
Fire occurrence record
FS-372588
Perimeter map method
GPS - Uncorrected Data

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 South Dakota in 20019

FireAcresStartCause
Rogers Shack Fire11,740Jul 31, 2001Natural
Grueb Fire3,600Aug 29, 2001Human
Lemon Butte Fire3,500Aug 29, 2001Human
Missile Rd Fire2,500Jan 6, 2001Human
Van Metre Fire1,950Sep 7, 2001Human
Distant Fire1,920Sep 1, 2001Human
Mckenzie Fire1,100Sep 28, 2001Human
Dry Creek 2 (C) Fire1,100Apr 19, 2001Human
Grass Fire1,000Sep 1, 2001

Every fire of 2001 South Dakota fire history

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.