Wildfires of 2009

Big Sheep Fire

2009Wallowa County, OregonWildfire

The Big Sheep Fire burned 3,466 acres in Wallowa County, Oregon, in 2009. It was discovered on August 29, 2009, and contained on October 27, 2009. The cause was recorded as natural.

Size
3,466 acres
Discovered
August 29, 2009
Contained
October 27, 2009
Cause
Natural

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 3,962 acres. Point of origin as reported, 45.404, -117.572.

The record

Reported final size
3,466 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
3,962 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
3,466 acres
Discovered
August 29, 2009, 5:49 a.m. local time
Contained
October 27, 2009, 10:05 a.m. local time
Cause
Natural
State
Oregon
County
Wallowa County
Land ownership at origin
Forest Service
Reporting unit
Wallowa-Whitman National Forest
Agency
Forest Service
Unit
ORWWF
Incident type
Wildfire
Unique fire identifier
2009-ORWWF-000062
MTBS fire identifier
OR4543911757920090829
MTBS assessment
Extended
Fire occurrence record
FS-1480693
Perimeter map method
GPS - Uncorrected Data

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 Oregon in 200912

FireAcresStartCause
Muddy Creek Fire16,267Aug 2, 2009Natural
Tumblebug Complex14,560Sep 12, 2009Natural
Kelsay Butte Fire12,406
Boze Fire10,721Sep 13, 2009Natural
Williams Creek Fire8,395Jul 28, 2009Human
North Fork Complex6,900Aug 2, 2009Natural
Rainbow Creek Fire5,740Sep 22, 2009Natural
Mcginnis Creek Fire3,417Jul 24, 2009Human
Big Sheep Fire3,120
Ward Canyon Fire1,962Oct 11, 2009Human
Green Grass Fire1,304May 30, 2009Natural
I-686 Fire1,296

Every fire of 2009 Oregon 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.