Wildfires of 2008

Polaris Fire

2008TexasWildfire

The Polaris Fire burned 4,934 acres in Texas, in 2008. It was discovered on December 6, 2008, and contained on December 8, 2008. The cause was recorded as equipment and vehicle use.

Size
4,934 acres
Discovered
December 6, 2008
Contained
December 8, 2008
Cause
Human

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 4,623 acres. Point of origin as reported, 27.487, -97.293.

The record

Reported final size
4,934 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
4,623 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
4,914 acres
Discovered
December 6, 2008, 3:00 p.m. local time
Contained
December 8, 2008, 7:38 a.m. local time
Cause
Human, Equipment and vehicle use
State
Texas
Land ownership at origin
National Park Service
Reporting unit
Padre Island National Seashore
Agency
National Park Service
Unit
TXPAP
Incident type
Wildfire
Unique fire identifier
2008-TXPAP-000803
MTBS fire identifier
TX2751509727620081206
MTBS assessment
Initial (SS)
Fire occurrence record
W-583086
Perimeter map method
Heads-up Digitized
Note on the perimeter
From WFMI

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 Texas in 200812

FireAcresStartCause
Glass Fire220,000Feb 25, 2008Human
Huckabee Fire98,168Apr 30, 2008Human
Highway 322 Fire67,500Mar 14, 2008Human
Porter Fire51,400Mar 14, 2008
Hughes Ranch Fire43,241Jun 4, 2008Human
Eighty-Two Fire33,037Mar 14, 2008
Snyder Complex28,625Feb 23, 2008Human
Burns Ranch Fire25,600Mar 18, 2008Human
Cathedral Fire23,000Apr 24, 2008Natural
Silver Fire20,200Feb 25, 2008Human
Cotulla Fire19,000Feb 2, 2008Human
Unnamed Fire18,000Feb 25, 2008Human

Every fire of 2008 Texas 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.