Wildfires of 2009

Highway 31 Fire

2009Horry County, South CarolinaWildfire

The Highway 31 Fire burned 19,130 acres in Horry County, South Carolina, in 2009. It was discovered on April 22, 2009, and contained on April 28, 2009. The cause was recorded as debris and open burning.

Size
19,130 acres
Discovered
April 22, 2009
Contained
April 28, 2009
Cause
Human

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 17,004 acres. Point of origin as reported, 33.822, -78.921.

The record

Reported final size
19,130 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
17,004 acres
Discovered
April 22, 2009, 12:24 p.m. local time
Contained
April 28, 2009, 9:15 a.m. local time
Cause
Human, Debris and open burning
State
South Carolina
County
Horry County
Land ownership at origin
State
Reporting unit
South Carolina Forestry Commission
Agency
State or local agency
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
SC3380907885020090422
MTBS assessment
Initial
Fire occurrence record
SFO-2009-SCSCS09FF0894

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 South Carolina in 20091

FireAcresStartCause
Joe Bay Fire1,089Apr 21, 2009Human

Every fire of 2009 South Carolina fire history

Nearby

Sources

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.