Wildfires of 2008

Btu Lightning Complex (Long Branch-Jack) Fire

2008Butte County, CaliforniaWildfire

The Btu Lightning Complex (Long Branch-Jack) Fire burned 47,647 acres in Butte County, California, in 2008. It was discovered on August 13, 2008. MTBS dates its ignition to June 21, 2008. The cause was recorded as natural.

Size
47,647 acres
Discovered
August 13, 2008
Cause
Natural

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 52,072 acres. Point of origin as reported, 39.880, -121.383.

The record

Reported final size
47,647 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
52,072 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
53,699 acres
Discovered
August 13, 2008, 2:59 p.m. local time
Ignition (MTBS)
June 21, 2008
Cause
Natural
State
California
County
Butte County
Reporting unit
Lassen-Modoc Unit
Agency
Forest Service
Unit
CABTU
Part of
Btu Lightning Complex
Other fire reports inside the burned area
Long Branch-Jack, West Branch, Empire, Rim, Flea Valley #2
Incident type
Wildfire
Unique fire identifier
2008-CABTU-007660
MTBS fire identifier
CA3985212144420080814
MTBS assessment
Extended
Fire occurrence record
SFO-2008CACDFLMU009807
Perimeter records
2 on file for this fire; the largest is shown
Note on the perimeter
CAL FIRE Team 9

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 California in 200812

FireAcresStartCause
Basin Complex162,818Jun 21, 2008Natural
Basin Complex (Indians) Fire81,378Jun 8, 2008Human
Siskiyou-Blue 2 Complex (Blue 2) Fire65,834Jun 20, 2008Natural
Panther Fire44,452Jul 23, 2008Natural
Bear Wallow Complex (Ukonom) Fire38,394Jun 21, 2008Natural
Piute Fire37,026Jun 28, 2008Human
Telegraph Fire34,091Jul 25, 2008Human
Yolla Bolly Complex (Iron) Fire32,903Jun 21, 2008Natural
Yellow Fire32,250Jun 22, 2008Natural
Iron and Alps Complexes (Eagle) Fire32,059Jun 21, 2008Natural
Yellow Fire31,933
Iron and Alps Complexes (Buckhorn) Fire31,419Jun 21, 2008Natural

Every fire of 2008 California 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.