Backbone Fire
The Backbone Fire burned 5,065 acres in Humboldt County, California, in 2009. It was discovered on July 2, 2009, and contained on September 3, 2009. The cause was recorded as natural.
- Size
- 5,065 acres
- Discovered
- July 2, 2009
- Contained
- September 3, 2009
- Cause
- Natural
Map
The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 4,701 acres. Point of origin as reported, 41.040, -123.463.
The record
- Reported final size
- 5,065 acres
- Burned area mapped by MTBS
- 4,701 acres
- Area inside the final perimeter
- 5,194 acres
- Discovered
- July 2, 2009, 10:28 a.m. local time
- Contained
- September 3, 2009, 8:00 a.m. local time
- Cause
- Natural
- State
- California
- County
- Humboldt County
- Land ownership at origin
- Forest Service
- Reporting unit
- Six Rivers National Forest
- Agency
- Forest Service
- Unit
- CASRF
- Part of
- Backbone Complex
- Incident type
- Wildfire
- Unique fire identifier
- 2009-CASRF-000032
- MTBS fire identifier
- CA4107012343620090702
- MTBS assessment
- Extended
- Fire occurrence record
- FS-1483873
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 200912
| Fire | Acres | Start | Cause |
|---|---|---|---|
| Station Fire | 160,371 | Aug 26, 2009 | Human |
| La Brea Fire | 91,622 | Aug 8, 2009 | Human |
| Guiberson Fire | 17,463 | Sep 22, 2009 | Human |
| Corral Fire | 12,200 | Aug 13, 2009 | Human |
| Hat Creek Complex (Sugarloaf) Fire | 9,356 | Aug 1, 2009 | Natural |
| Jesusita Fire | 8,733 | May 5, 2009 | Human |
| Lockheed Fire | 7,817 | Aug 12, 2009 | Human |
| Unnamed Fire | 7,500 | Oct 4, 2009 | |
| Big Meadow Fire | 7,425 | Aug 26, 2009 | Human |
| Sheep Fire | 7,128 | Oct 3, 2009 | Human |
| Shu Lightning Complex (Chalk) Fire | 6,923 | Aug 2, 2009 | Natural |
| Gloria Fire | 6,437 | Aug 27, 2009 | Human |
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.