Million Fire
The Million Fire burned 9,294 acres in Rio Grande County, Colorado, in 2002. It was discovered on June 19, 2002, and contained on August 1, 2002. The cause was recorded as human.
- Size
- 9,294 acres
- Discovered
- June 19, 2002
- Contained
- August 1, 2002
- Cause
- Human
Map
The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 7,919 acres. Point of origin as reported, 37.627, -106.668.
The record
- Reported final size
- 9,294 acres
- Burned area mapped by MTBS
- 7,919 acres
- Area inside the final perimeter
- 9,222 acres
- Discovered
- June 19, 2002, 12:50 p.m. local time
- Contained
- August 1, 2002, 6:00 p.m. local time
- Cause
- Human, Undetermined
- State
- Colorado
- County
- Rio Grande County
- Land ownership at origin
- Forest Service
- Reporting unit
- Rio Grande National Forest
- Agency
- Forest Service
- Unit
- CORGF
- Incident type
- Wildfire
- Unique fire identifier
- 2002-CORGF-000358
- MTBS fire identifier
- CO3763510662120020619
- MTBS assessment
- Extended
- Fire occurrence record
- FS-384431
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 Colorado in 200212
| Fire | Acres | Start | Cause |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hayman Fire | 137,760 | Jun 8, 2002 | Human |
| Missionary Ridge Fire | 73,121 | Jun 9, 2002 | Human |
| James and John Fire | 33,000 | Jun 2, 2002 | Natural |
| Burn Canyon Fire | 30,292 | Jul 9, 2002 | Natural |
| Big Fish Fire | 17,056 | Jul 19, 2002 | Natural |
| Mt. Zirkel Complex (Hinman) Fire | 16,852 | Jul 12, 2002 | Natural |
| Cheyenne County Fire | 15,000 | May 31, 2002 | Natural |
| Mt. Zirkel Complex (Burn Ridge) Fire | 14,403 | Aug 12, 2002 | Natural |
| Spring Creek Fire | 13,493 | Jun 22, 2002 | Natural |
| Coal Seam Fire | 12,209 | Jun 8, 2002 | Human |
| Lincoln County Complex | 10,000 | May 31, 2002 | Natural |
| Unnamed Fire | 8,688 | Jun 1, 2002 |
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.