Wildfires of 2002

Highway 58 Fire

2002San Luis Obispo County, CaliforniaWildfire

The Highway 58 Fire burned 1,380 acres in San Luis Obispo County, California, in 2002. It was discovered on July 18, 2002, and contained on July 22, 2002. MTBS dates its ignition to July 19, 2002. The cause was recorded as arson/incendiarism.

Size
1,380 acres
Discovered
July 18, 2002
Contained
July 22, 2002
Cause
Human

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 1,394 acres. Point of origin as reported, 35.433, -120.550.

The record

Reported final size
1,380 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
1,394 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
1,286 acres
Discovered
July 18, 2002, 4:23 p.m. local time
Ignition (MTBS)
July 19, 2002
Contained
July 22, 2002, 9:00 a.m. local time
Cause
Human, Arson/incendiarism
State
California
County
San Luis Obispo County
Land ownership at origin
Private
Reporting unit
Central California District
Agency
Forest Service
Unit
CASLU
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
CA3543312052720020719
MTBS assessment
Initial
Fire occurrence record
W-565426

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 200212

FireAcresStartCause
Mcnally Fire150,696Jul 21, 2002Human
Pines Fire61,690Jul 29, 2002Human
Williams Fire37,240Sep 22, 2002Human
Copper Fire23,407Jun 5, 2002Human
Cannon Fire23,020Jun 15, 2002Human
Wolf Fire21,645Jun 1, 2002Human
Curve Fire20,857Sep 1, 2002Human
Slinkard Fire8,600Jul 13, 2002Natural
Sudden Ranch Fire7,782Jun 15, 2002
Bluecut Fire6,864Jun 16, 2002Human
Louisiana Fire6,559Jun 26, 2002Human
Inyo Complex (Fuller) Fire6,400Jul 11, 2002Natural

Every fire of 2002 California 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.