Wildfires of 2002

Sanford Fire

2002UtahWildfire

The Sanford Fire burned 42,799 acres in Utah, in 2002. It was discovered on May 31, 2002, and contained on July 1, 2002. The cause was recorded as debris and open burning.

Size
42,799 acres
Discovered
May 31, 2002
Contained
July 1, 2002
Cause
Human

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 86,491 acres. Point of origin as reported, 37.958, -112.208.

The record

Reported final size
42,799 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
86,491 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
73,380 acres
Discovered
May 31, 2002, 1:00 p.m. local time
Contained
July 1, 2002, 6:00 p.m. local time
Cause
Human, Debris and open burning
State
Utah
Land ownership at origin
Forest Service
Reporting unit
Dixie National Forest
Agency
Forest Service
Unit
UTDIF
Incident type
Wildfire
Unique fire identifier
2002-UTDIF-000009
MTBS fire identifier
UT3793611217320020531
MTBS assessment
Extended
Fire occurrence record
FS-378538
Perimeter map method
GPS - Differentially Corrected Data
Note on the perimeter
Escaped RX Fire,reported 35,359 rx acres

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 Utah in 200212

FireAcresStartCause
Rattle Complex (Rattle) Fire88,421Jun 22, 2002Natural
Mustang Fire20,038Jun 30, 2002Human
Garden Valley Complex (East Fork) Fire14,208Jun 28, 2002Human
Sequoia Fire8,100Jul 14, 2002Natural
Canyons Complex (Hang Dog) Fire6,000Jul 14, 2002Natural
Black Canyon Fire5,970Jun 20, 2002Natural
Big Wash Fire5,283Jun 5, 2002Natural
County Line Fire4,860Jul 17, 2002Natural
Canyons Complex (Hammond) Fire3,800Jul 14, 2002Natural
Price Canyon Fire3,269Jun 30, 2002Human
Garder Canyon Fire2,511Aug 19, 2002Natural
Maple Springs Fire2,500Jul 13, 2002Natural

Every fire of 2002 Utah 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.