Wildfires of 2011

West Riverside Fire

2011MontanaWildfire

The West Riverside Fire burned 3,800 acres in Montana, in 2011. It was discovered on August 22, 2011, and contained on September 15, 2011. The cause was recorded as arson/incendiarism.

Size
3,800 acres
Discovered
August 22, 2011
Contained
September 15, 2011
Cause
Human

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 3,569 acres. Point of origin as reported, 46.716, -113.888.

The record

Reported final size
3,800 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
3,569 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
3,708 acres
Discovered
August 22, 2011, 6:10 p.m. local time
Contained
September 15, 2011, 5:00 p.m. local time
Cause
Human, Arson/incendiarism
State
Montana
Land ownership at origin
Forest Service
Reporting unit
Lolo National Forest
Agency
Forest Service
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
MT4671611388820110822
MTBS assessment
Extended
Fire occurrence record
FS-1502469

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 Montana in 201112

FireAcresStartCause
Diamond Complex34,550Aug 22, 2011Natural
Black Springs Complex18,970Aug 22, 2011Natural
Forty One Complex13,261Aug 28, 2011Natural
Maverick Fire10,715Aug 22, 2011Natural
Hammer Creek Fire6,314Aug 8, 2011Natural
Mill Fire5,482Aug 22, 2011Natural
Big Salmon Lake Fire5,183Aug 16, 2011Human
Boss Ribs Fire4,537Aug 22, 2011Natural
Stewart Fire4,213Aug 24, 2011Natural
Lutz Fire3,982Aug 6, 2011Natural
Melrose Fire2,569Oct 1, 2011Natural
Canyon Creek Fire2,560Aug 29, 2011Natural

Every fire of 2011 Montana 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.