Battle Creek Fire
The Battle Creek Fire burned 12,443 acres in South Dakota, in 2002. It was discovered on August 16, 2002, and contained on August 29, 2002. The cause was recorded as power generation/transmission/distribution.
- Size
- 12,443 acres
- Discovered
- August 16, 2002
- Contained
- August 29, 2002
- Cause
- Human
Map
The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 15,027 acres. Point of origin as reported, 43.933, -103.348.
The record
- Reported final size
- 12,443 acres
- Burned area mapped by MTBS
- 15,027 acres
- Area inside the final perimeter
- 13,495 acres
- Discovered
- August 16, 2002, 6:30 p.m. local time
- Contained
- August 29, 2002, 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
- SD4391610335820020816
- MTBS assessment
- Extended
- Fire occurrence record
- FS-382593
- 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 200212
| Fire | Acres | Start | Cause |
|---|---|---|---|
| Laplante Fire | 14,224 | Jun 29, 2002 | Human |
| Grizzly Gulch Fire | 11,589 | Jun 29, 2002 | Human |
| Wanna Fire | 7,505 | Aug 18, 2002 | Human |
| Russell Ehlers Fire | 7,000 | Feb 2, 2002 | Human |
| Cottonwood Fire | 6,656 | Aug 3, 2002 | Human |
| Evergreen Fire | 4,000 | Jun 29, 2002 | Human |
| Potato Creek Fire | 3,708 | Apr 17, 2002 | Human |
| Looking Fire | 3,004 | Jul 29, 2002 | Human |
| Painter Fire | 2,500 | Jul 16, 2002 | Human |
| Travers Fire | 2,400 | Jul 16, 2002 | Human |
| Cedar Canyon Fire | 2,000 | Jul 14, 2002 | Human |
| Bad Nation Fire | 2,000 | Jul 29, 2002 | 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.