Wildfires of 2008

Rich Fire

2008Plumas County, CaliforniaWildfire

The Rich Fire burned 6,112 acres in Plumas County, California, in 2008. It was discovered on July 29, 2008, and contained on September 2, 2008. The cause was recorded as railroad operations and maintenance.

Size
6,112 acres
Discovered
July 29, 2008
Contained
September 2, 2008
Cause
Human

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 6,681 acres. Point of origin as reported, 40.020, -121.168.

The record

Reported final size
6,112 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
6,681 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
6,111 acres
Discovered
July 29, 2008, 3:12 p.m. local time
Contained
September 2, 2008, 6:00 p.m. local time
Cause
Human, Railroad operations and maintenance
State
California
County
Plumas County
Land ownership at origin
Forest Service
Reporting unit
Plumas National Forest
Agency
Forest Service
Unit
CAPNF
Part of
Canyon Complex
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
CA4004012113720080729
MTBS assessment
Extended
Fire occurrence record
FS-1469338

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
Btu Lightning Complex (Long Branch-Jack) Fire47,647Aug 13, 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

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.