Wildfires of 2002

Jack Knife Fire

2002Gem County, IdahoWildfire

The Jack Knife Fire burned 6,786 acres in Gem County, Idaho, in 2002. It was discovered on July 8, 2002, and contained on July 12, 2002. The cause was recorded as natural.

Size
6,786 acres
Discovered
July 8, 2002
Contained
July 12, 2002
Cause
Natural

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 6,873 acres. Point of origin as reported, 44.117, -116.348.

The record

Reported final size
6,786 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
6,873 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
6,792 acres
Discovered
July 8, 2002, 2:40 a.m. local time
Contained
July 12, 2002, 12:00 p.m. local time
Cause
Natural
State
Idaho
County
Gem County
Land ownership at origin
Bureau of Land Management
Reporting unit
Boise District
Agency
Bureau of Land Management
Unit
IDIDS
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
ID4412211634420020708
MTBS assessment
Initial
Fire occurrence record
W-108978
Perimeter map method
GPS-Flight

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 Idaho in 200212

FireAcresStartCause
Horse Butte Fire10,422Aug 4, 2002Natural
Owinza Fire8,874Oct 8, 2002
Horse Skin Fire8,140Jul 25, 2002Natural
Jim Burns Fire5,237Jul 7, 2002Natural
Frank Church Complex (Little Horse) Fire4,965Aug 4, 2002Natural
Clot Fire4,218Jul 22, 2002Natural
Chip Fire3,629Jul 13, 2002Natural
Grinder Fire3,459Jun 26, 2002Natural
Kimama Fire3,433Jun 25, 2002
Kelly Creek Fire3,359Aug 18, 2002Human
Big Crow Fire2,800Jul 15, 2002Natural
Web Fire2,583Jul 8, 2002Natural

Every fire of 2002 Idaho 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.