Wildfires of 2008

West Fire

2008Eddy County, New MexicoWildfire

The West Fire burned 1,437 acres in Eddy County, New Mexico, in 2008. It was discovered on June 22, 2008, and contained on June 26, 2008. The cause was recorded as natural.

Size
1,437 acres
Discovered
June 22, 2008
Contained
June 26, 2008
Cause
Natural

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 1,224 acres. Point of origin as reported, 32.809, -104.933.

The record

Reported final size
1,437 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
1,224 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
1,433 acres
Discovered
June 22, 2008, 1:39 p.m. local time
Contained
June 26, 2008, 8:00 a.m. local time
Cause
Natural
State
New Mexico
County
Eddy County
Land ownership at origin
Bureau of Land Management
Reporting unit
Carlsbad Field Office
Agency
Bureau of Land Management
Incident type
Wildfire
Unique fire identifier
2008-NMCAD-573189
MTBS fire identifier
NM3279310494020080622
MTBS assessment
Initial (SS)
Fire occurrence record
W-573189
Perimeter map method
Digitized-Topo

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 New Mexico in 200812

FireAcresStartCause
Stiles Complex67,008Mar 14, 2008Human
Rocky Fire49,092Jun 18, 2008Natural
Bonney Fire25,329Jun 18, 2008Natural
Four Lakes Fire23,000Apr 30, 2008
Unnamed Fire16,837Apr 5, 2008Human
Trigo Fire13,709Apr 15, 2008Human
Cholla Fire12,624Apr 7, 2008Human
Fire10,500Feb 25, 2008
Elliott Fire9,185Dec 14, 2008Human
SRR13 Fire7,116Jan 15, 2008
Eldridge Fire5,800Jun 26, 2008Natural
Jal Fire5,760Feb 25, 2008

Every fire of 2008 New Mexico 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.