Cave Creek Complex
The Cave Creek Complex burned 248,310 acres in Maricopa County, Arizona, in 2005. It was discovered on June 21, 2005, and contained on July 11, 2005. The cause was recorded as natural.
- Size
- 248,310 acres
- Discovered
- June 21, 2005
- Contained
- July 11, 2005
- Cause
- Natural
Map
The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 245,997 acres. Point of origin as reported, 33.978, -111.823.
The record
- Reported final size
- 248,310 acres
- Burned area mapped by MTBS
- 245,997 acres
- Area inside the final perimeter
- 250,243 acres
- Discovered
- June 21, 2005, 7:53 p.m. local time
- Contained
- July 11, 2005, 10:30 a.m. local time
- Cause
- Natural
- State
- Arizona
- County
- Maricopa County
- Land ownership at origin
- Forest Service
- Reporting unit
- Tonto National Forest
- Agency
- Forest Service
- Unit
- AZTNF
- Part of
- Cave Creek Complex
- Incident type
- Wildfire
- Unique fire identifier
- 2005-AZTNF-000110
- MTBS fire identifier
- AZ3424311187720050621
- MTBS assessment
- Initial
- Fire occurrence record
- FS-1430376
- Perimeter map method
- Other Agency Digital
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 200512
| Fire | Acres | Start | Cause |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edge Complex | 72,000 | Jul 16, 2005 | Natural |
| Goldwater Fire | 58,536 | Jun 16, 2005 | Human |
| Cow Fire | 44,707 | Jul 21, 2005 | Natural |
| Tweedy Point Fire | 35,639 | Jun 28, 2005 | Natural |
| Sh Ranch Complex | 32,126 | Jul 17, 2005 | Natural |
| Mt Bangs Complex | 28,177 | Jun 24, 2005 | Natural |
| King Valley Fire | 26,000 | Oct 1, 2005 | Human |
| Florida Fire | 23,183 | Jul 7, 2005 | Natural |
| Perkins Complex | 22,477 | Jun 22, 2005 | Natural |
| Tank Complex | 20,551 | Jul 19, 2005 | Human |
| Sand Tank Complex (Sand Tank) Fire | 17,131 | Jun 29, 2005 | Human |
| Three Fire Complex (Three) Fire | 16,100 | Jun 21, 2005 | Natural |
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.