Skeleton Fire
The Skeleton Fire burned 4,300 acres in Cochise County, Arizona, in 2003. It was discovered on July 15, 2003, and contained on July 22, 2003. The cause was recorded as natural.
- Size
- 4,300 acres
- Discovered
- July 15, 2003
- Contained
- July 22, 2003
- Cause
- Natural
Map
The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 4,843 acres. Point of origin as reported, 31.558, -109.080.
The record
- Reported final size
- 4,300 acres
- Burned area mapped by MTBS
- 4,843 acres
- Area inside the final perimeter
- 3,658 acres
- Discovered
- July 15, 2003, 8:00 a.m. local time
- Contained
- July 22, 2003, 5:00 p.m. local time
- Cause
- Natural
- State
- Arizona
- County
- Cochise County
- Land ownership at origin
- Forest Service
- Reporting unit
- Coronado National Forest
- Agency
- Forest Service
- Unit
- AZCNF
- Incident type
- Wildfire
- MTBS fire identifier
- AZ3155010908620030715
- MTBS assessment
- Initial
- Fire occurrence record
- FS-385535
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 Arizona in 200312
| Fire | Acres | Start | Cause |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aspen Fire | 82,440 | Jun 17, 2003 | Human |
| Kinishba Fire | 24,109 | Jul 13, 2003 | Natural |
| Picture Fire | 12,900 | Jun 17, 2003 | Human |
| Poplar Fire | 12,000 | Sep 4, 2003 | Natural |
| Thomas Fire | 10,644 | Jun 6, 2003 | Natural |
| Unnamed Fire | 7,912 | Jun 23, 2003 | |
| Steeple Fire | 6,105 | Jul 12, 2003 | Natural |
| Lizard Fire | 5,270 | Jun 7, 2003 | Natural |
| Powell Fire | 3,611 | Jun 15, 2003 | Natural |
| Helens 2 Fire | 3,597 | Jun 17, 2003 | Natural |
| Rose Fire | 3,483 | ||
| Mosca Fire | 3,066 | Jan 8, 2003 |
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.