Wildfires of 2012

Porter Mills Fire

2012Bath County, VirginiaWildfire

The Porter Mills Fire burned 879 acres in Bath County, Virginia, in 2012. It was discovered on April 11, 2012, and contained on April 26, 2012. The cause was recorded as human.

Size
879 acres
Discovered
April 11, 2012
Contained
April 26, 2012
Cause
Human

Map

The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 1,253 acres. Point of origin as reported, 37.955, -79.782.

The record

Reported final size
879 acres
Burned area mapped by MTBS
1,253 acres
Area inside the final perimeter
838 acres
Discovered
April 11, 2012, 11:39 a.m. local time
Contained
April 26, 2012, 9:15 a.m. local time
Cause
Human, Undetermined
State
Virginia
County
Bath County
Land ownership at origin
Forest Service
Reporting unit
George Washington & Jefferson National Forests
Agency
Forest Service
Unit
VAVAF
Part of
Easter Complex
Incident type
Wildfire
MTBS fire identifier
VA3795507978320120411
MTBS assessment
Initial (SS)
Fire occurrence record
FS-1502986
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 Virginia in 20126

FireAcresStartCause
Rich Hole Fire15,454Apr 9, 2012Human
Alleghany Tunnels Fires Fire11,381Apr 7, 2012Human
Barbours Creek Fire7,351Apr 7, 2012Human
Shipwreck Fire3,717Apr 8, 2012Human
Neighbor Mtn Fire2,138Jun 26, 2012Natural
Point 2 Fire1,200Jun 25, 2012Natural

Every fire of 2012 Virginia 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.