Potato Fire
The Potato Fire burned 18,236 acres in Custer County, Idaho, in 2006. It was discovered on July 27, 2006, and contained on September 18, 2006. MTBS dates its ignition to July 26, 2006. The cause was recorded as natural.
- Size
- 18,236 acres
- Discovered
- July 27, 2006
- Contained
- September 18, 2006
- Cause
- Natural
Map
The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 17,410 acres. Point of origin as reported, 44.325, -114.839.
The record
- Reported final size
- 18,236 acres
- Burned area mapped by MTBS
- 17,410 acres
- Area inside the final perimeter
- 18,225 acres
- Discovered
- July 27, 2006, 1:20 p.m. local time
- Ignition (MTBS)
- July 26, 2006
- Contained
- September 18, 2006, 6:00 p.m. local time
- Cause
- Natural
- State
- Idaho
- County
- Custer County
- Land ownership at origin
- Forest Service
- Reporting unit
- Salmon-Challis National Forest
- Agency
- Forest Service
- Unit
- IDSCF
- Incident type
- Wildfire
- MTBS fire identifier
- ID4437211481420060726
- MTBS assessment
- Extended
- Fire occurrence record
- FS-1441856
- Perimeter map method
- Infrared Interpretation
- Note on the perimeter
- $16,000,000 in suppresion costs
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 Idaho in 200612
| Fire | Acres | Start | Cause |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crystal Fire | 220,042 | Aug 15, 2006 | Natural |
| Sailor Cap Fire | 61,929 | Aug 23, 2006 | Human |
| Cherry Fire | 54,350 | Aug 10, 2006 | Natural |
| Rattlesnake Complex | 43,600 | Aug 20, 2006 | Natural |
| Red Mountain Fire | 35,482 | Aug 14, 2006 | Human |
| Middle Fork Complex | 35,122 | Aug 7, 2006 | Natural |
| Black Butte Fire | 33,380 | ||
| Heavens Gate Complex (Black Butte) Fire | 33,000 | Aug 22, 2006 | Natural |
| Stone 2 Fire | 31,568 | Aug 5, 2006 | Natural |
| Southfork Complex (Cougar) Fire | 28,431 | Aug 7, 2006 | Natural |
| Owinza Fire | 26,622 | Aug 7, 2006 | Natural |
| Bowen Fire | 19,482 |
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.