Wildfires of 2009

Mellen Fire

2009ColoradoWildfire

The Mellen Fire burned 3,603 acres in Colorado, in 2009. It was discovered on August 7, 2009, and contained on August 15, 2009. The cause was recorded as natural.

Size
3,603 acres
Discovered
August 7, 2009
Contained
August 15, 2009
Cause
Natural

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 3,397 acres. Point of origin as reported, 40.159, -108.950.

The record

Reported final size
3,603 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
3,397 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
3,454 acres
Discovered
August 7, 2009, 12:34 p.m. local time
Contained
August 15, 2009, 8:00 p.m. local time
Cause
Natural
State
Colorado
Land ownership at origin
Bureau of Land Management
Reporting unit
Dinosaur National Monument
Agency
Bureau of Land Management
Unit
COWRD
Incident type
Wildfire
Unique fire identifier
2009-COWRD-000365
MTBS fire identifier
CO4020910894720090807
MTBS assessment
Initial
Fire occurrence record
W-592598
Perimeter map method
GPS-Flight

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 Colorado in 20099

FireAcresStartCause
Narraguinnep Fire7,300Aug 7, 2009Natural
Quarry Fire6,328Mar 3, 2009Human
Old Stage Fire3,008Jan 7, 2009
Dominguez Fire2,599Jul 11, 2009Natural
Bradfield Fire2,400Aug 2, 2009Natural
Allred Fire2,068Aug 3, 2009Natural
Spring Creek Fire1,340Jul 28, 2009Human
Spring Fire979Aug 30, 2009Natural
Tabaguache Creek Fire935Aug 29, 2009Natural

Every fire of 2009 Colorado 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.