Fish Creek Complex (Thompson Creek) Fire
The Fish Creek Complex (Thompson Creek) Fire burned 33,948 acres in Mineral County, Montana, in 2003. It was discovered on August 10, 2003, and contained on September 18, 2003. The cause was recorded as natural.
- Size
- 33,948 acres
- Discovered
- August 10, 2003
- Contained
- September 18, 2003
- Cause
- Natural
Map
The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 33,782 acres. Point of origin as reported, 46.850, -114.754.
The record
- Reported final size
- 33,948 acres
- Burned area mapped by MTBS
- 33,782 acres
- Discovered
- August 10, 2003, 12:45 p.m. local time
- Contained
- September 18, 2003, 8:00 a.m. local time
- Cause
- Natural
- State
- Montana
- County
- Mineral County
- Land ownership at origin
- Forest Service
- Reporting unit
- Lolo National Forest
- Agency
- Forest Service
- Part of
- Fish Creek Complex
- Incident type
- Wildfire
- MTBS fire identifier
- MT4688611467420030810
- MTBS assessment
- Extended
- Fire occurrence record
- FS-390296
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.
From the incident teams’ reports
The status summaries (ICS-209 forms) the incident teams filed: 40, from August 10, 2003 to October 10, 2003. These are the teams’ own estimates, written while the incident was running, and personnel is totaled from the resources each report lists. A fact the reports leave blank is not shown, and a zero on the form is treated as blank.
- Most structures threatened at once
- 211
- Injuries
- 3
- Most personnel assigned
- 1,166 on September 3, 2003
- Most aircraft assigned
- 11
- People evacuated, at the most
- Evacuations were reported; no count was filed
- Cost reported by the teams
- $27 million, in 2003 dollars
- Cause on the reports
- Lightning or other natural
- Primary fuel model reported
- Timber (Litter and Understory)
Acres reported by day
The largest rise between two days’ reports was 10,950 acres, on August 20, 2003.
Reported acres by day, as a table
| Day | Acres | Change from the day before |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 10, 2003 | 600 | |
| Aug 11, 2003 | 600 | 0 |
| Aug 12, 2003 | 6,275 | +5,675 |
| Aug 13, 2003 | 6,500 | +225 |
| Aug 14, 2003 | 6,500 | 0 |
| Aug 16, 2003 | 8,500 | |
| Aug 17, 2003 | 10,250 | +1,750 |
| Aug 18, 2003 | 10,400 | +150 |
| Aug 19, 2003 | 10,400 | 0 |
| Aug 20, 2003 | 21,350 | +10,950 |
| Aug 21, 2003 | 24,220 | +2,870 |
| Aug 22, 2003 | 25,000 | +780 |
| Aug 23, 2003 | 26,800 | +1,800 |
| Aug 24, 2003 | 28,000 | +1,200 |
| Aug 25, 2003 | 30,856 | +2,856 |
| Aug 26, 2003 | 30,856 | 0 |
| Aug 27, 2003 | 30,856 | 0 |
| Aug 28, 2003 | 30,856 | 0 |
| Aug 29, 2003 | 30,856 | 0 |
| Aug 30, 2003 | 31,456 | +600 |
| Aug 31, 2003 | 31,456 | 0 |
| Sep 1, 2003 | 31,756 | +300 |
| Sep 2, 2003 | 31,756 | 0 |
| Sep 3, 2003 | 34,754 | +2,998 |
| Sep 4, 2003 | 35,613 | +859 |
| Sep 5, 2003 | 35,700 | +87 |
| Sep 6, 2003 | 35,900 | +200 |
| Sep 7, 2003 | 36,855 | +955 |
| Sep 8, 2003 | 36,855 | 0 |
| Sep 9, 2003 | 36,855 | 0 |
| Sep 10, 2003 | 36,950 | +95 |
| Sep 11, 2003 | 36,950 | 0 |
| Sep 12, 2003 | 36,956 | +6 |
| Sep 13, 2003 | 36,956 | 0 |
| Sep 14, 2003 | 36,956 | 0 |
| Sep 15, 2003 | 36,956 | 0 |
| Sep 16, 2003 | 36,956 | 0 |
| Sep 17, 2003 | 36,956 | 0 |
| Sep 18, 2003 | 36,956 | 0 |
| Oct 10, 2003 | 36,956 |
Other large fires in Montana in 200312
| Fire | Acres | Start | Cause |
|---|---|---|---|
| Missouri Breaks Complex | 125,900 | Jul 19, 2003 | Natural |
| Germaine Fire | 66,497 | ||
| Robert Fire | 57,273 | Jul 23, 2003 | Human |
| Wedge Canyon Fire | 50,981 | Jul 18, 2003 | Natural |
| Lincoln Complex (Snowbank) Fire | 37,405 | Aug 13, 2003 | Natural |
| Hobble Fire | 36,180 | Aug 8, 2003 | Natural |
| Indian Fire | 33,955 | ||
| Big Coulee Fire | 29,492 | ||
| Cooney Ridge Fire | 25,680 | Aug 8, 2003 | Natural |
| Littlehawk Fire | 25,490 | Aug 12, 2003 | Natural |
| Mineral-Primm (Mineral and Primm) Fire | 25,202 | Aug 9, 2003 | Natural |
| Rampage Complex (Double Mountain 2) Fire | 21,000 | Aug 19, 2003 | Natural |
Nearby
Sources
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. Incident figures from ICS-209-PLUS: St. Denis, Lise A., Karen C. Short, Kathryn McConnell, Maxwell C. Cook, Nathan P. Mietkiewicz, Mollie Buckland and Jennifer K. Balch, 2023, All-hazards dataset mined from the US National Incident Management System 1999-2020, Scientific Data 10, 112, doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-01955-0; data on figshare, doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19858927.v3, licensed CC BY 4.0. This site matched each incident to the fire by the dataset’s own links where it has them, and otherwise by name, start date, state and size, and left out figures too large to be possible for a fire of its size.