Wildfires of 2008

Swanson Lake Fire

2008Lincoln County, WashingtonWildfire

The Swanson Lake Fire burned 19,090 acres in Lincoln County, Washington, in 2008. It was discovered on August 18, 2008, and contained on September 13, 2008. The cause was recorded as human.

Size
19,090 acres
Discovered
August 18, 2008
Contained
September 13, 2008
Cause
Human

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 18,932 acres. Point of origin as reported, 47.709, -118.428.

The record

Reported final size
19,090 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
18,932 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
18,057 acres
Discovered
August 18, 2008, 3:20 p.m. local time
Contained
September 13, 2008, 6:00 p.m. local time
Cause
Human, Undetermined
State
Washington
County
Lincoln County
Land ownership at origin
Private
Reporting unit
Spokane District
Agency
Bureau of Land Management
Unit
WANES
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
WA4771111840320080818
MTBS assessment
Initial
Fire occurrence record
W-579514
Perimeter records
2 on file for this fire; the largest is shown

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 Washington in 200812

FireAcresStartCause
Columbia River Road Fire22,155Aug 7, 2008Human
Badger Mtn Complex (Badger Mountain) Fire15,023Jul 8, 2008Human
Smith Lake Fire12,513Aug 1, 2008
Unnamed Fire7,684
Two Lakes Fire6,431
Cold Springs Fire4,728Jul 12, 2008Natural
Willow Creek Fire3,600Jul 13, 2008
Unnamed Fire3,500Jul 27, 2008Human
Baird Springs Fire3,206Jun 15, 2008Human
Unnamed Fire2,963
Unnamed Fire2,929
Green Lake Fire2,614Jul 31, 2008Human

Every fire of 2008 Washington 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.