Vallecito Fire
The Vallecito Fire burned 1,400 acres in La Plata County, Colorado, in 2012. It was discovered on October 16, 2012, and contained on October 16, 2012. MTBS dates its ignition to October 12, 2012. The cause was recorded as natural.
- Size
- 1,400 acres
- Discovered
- October 16, 2012
- Contained
- October 16, 2012
- Cause
- Natural
Map
The burned area boundary MTBS mapped from Landsat imagery, 2,769 acres. Point of origin as reported, 37.411, -107.579.
The record
- Reported final size
- 1,400 acres
- Burned area mapped by MTBS
- 2,769 acres
- Area inside the final perimeter
- 1,373 acres
- Discovered
- October 16, 2012, 12:10 p.m. local time
- Ignition (MTBS)
- October 12, 2012
- Contained
- October 16, 2012, 6:00 p.m. local time
- Cause
- Natural
- State
- Colorado
- County
- La Plata County
- Land ownership at origin
- Forest Service
- Reporting unit
- San Juan National Forest
- Agency
- Bureau of Land Management
- Unit
- COSJF
- Incident type
- Wildfire
- Unique fire identifier
- 2012-COSJD-001038
- MTBS fire identifier
- CO3741010757920121016
- MTBS assessment
- Extended
- Fire occurrence record
- FS-1509515
- Perimeter records
- 2 on file for this fire; the largest is shown
- Note on the perimeter
- From IR flight 11/8/2012 and GPS
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 201212
| Fire | Acres | Start | Cause |
|---|---|---|---|
| High Park Fire | 87,275 | Jun 9, 2012 | Natural |
| Last Chance Fire | 45,000 | Jun 25, 2012 | |
| Little Sand Fire | 24,931 | May 14, 2012 | Natural |
| Heartstrong Fire | 24,000 | Mar 18, 2012 | Human |
| Waldo Canyon Fire | 18,947 | Jun 23, 2012 | Human |
| Pine Ridge Fire | 13,920 | Jun 27, 2012 | Natural |
| Weber Fire | 10,133 | Jun 22, 2012 | Human |
| Hewlett Fire | 7,702 | ||
| Sunrise Mine Fire | 5,742 | May 25, 2012 | Human |
| Wolf Fire | 5,126 | Aug 3, 2012 | Natural |
| Lower North Fork Fire | 4,142 | Mar 26, 2012 | Human |
| Fern Lake Fire | 3,498 | Oct 9, 2012 |
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.