Historic Wildland Fires and their Impacts

The following compilation describes historic fires that have directly or indirectly influenced public perception about fires occurring in wildland areas. Each fire is described generally by date, name, location (state, with the exception of CA which is divided into NCAL and SCAL), and significant impacts (size, structural damage, and fatalities). However, the impacts of each historic incident extend well beyond statistical description. By the time each fire was declared controlled untold numbers of human lives or natural ecosystems were transformed, often dramatically if not tragically. Further, many of the fires listed below led the way to changes in policy and new directions in fire and forest management. Thus the histories of forest fires in the US and elsewhere on Earth also provide insights into the evolution of societies in proximity to the events as they occurred. At the same time, this chronology does not include countless fires that burned prior to European settlement of wild areas in north America, or that affected native cultures and ecosystems prior to recorded history.

Thus any listing of historic fires provides at best a crude snapshot of fire imprints over time in an area. Dendrochronology, or the study and dating of tree rings, can extend our knowledge of fire occurrences in an area where fires scar the cambium beneath a tree's bark. Techniques have been developed for dating and estimating the areal extent of historic fires, thereby extending considerably the fire history for an area. Still, we can imagine that much of the history of fire over the millennia remains undiscovered.

 

Date	Fire Name	Location	Size/No. Homes Destroyed	Fatalities
2001	Thirtymile	WA		4
2000	Cerro Grande	NM	47,000 ac235 structures (400+ residences)	0
2000	Valley Complex	MT	100,000 ac, 100+ structures
1996	Oregon (incidents)	OR	5 escaped prescribed natural fires	0
1994	South Canyon	CO	1200 ac	14
1993	Old Topanga	SCAL	350 homes	3
1993	Laguna Beach	SCAL	366 homes	0
1993	Altadena	SCAL	118 homes	0
1992	Fountain	NCAL	307 homes	0
1991	Tunnel	NCAL	2,103 homes	25
1990	Paint	SCAL	479 homes	1
1990	Bedford	SCAL	120+ homes	0
1988	Yellowstone (incidents)	WY/MT	2.4 million ac	0
1985	49er	NCAL	148 homes	0
1980	Mack Lake	MI	23,000 acres 44 homes	1
1980	Panorama	SCAL	325 homes	4
1977	Kanan	SCAL	224 homes	1
1977	Sycamore	SCAL	234 homes	0
1976	Battlement Creek	CO		4
1970	Wright	SCAL	103 homes	0
1970	Laguna	SCAL	175,000 ac 382 homes	5
1967	Sundance	ID	50,000 ac	2
1964	Coyote	CA	106 homes	2
1964	Hanley, Nuns Canyon Fires	NCAL	295 homes	0
1963	Staten Island	NY	100 homes	0
1961	Bel Air	SCAL	505 homes	0
1961	Harlow	NCAL	106 homes	2
1947	Maine Forest Fire Disaster (incidents)	ME	1,200 buildings	16
1943	Southern California (incidents)	SCAL	200 homes	?
1941	Marshfield	MA	450 homes	0
1937	Blackwater	WY		15
1936	Bandon	OR	386 buildings	13
1933	Tillamook	OR	236,000 ac	0
1932	Matilija	SCAL	220,000 ac	0
1929	Mill Valley	NCAL	117	0
1923	Berkeley	NCAL	584 homes	0
1918	Cloquet	MN	~4,000 homes	551
1910	Idaho/Montana (incidents)	ID/MT	3.5 million ac	85
1894	Hinckley	MN	?,000 homes	418
1871	Peshtigo	WI/MI	?,000 homes	~1,250
1825	Miramichi	ME	3.0 million ac	160

Souces:

Wilson, C.C. 1977. Fatal and near-fatal forest fires: the common denominators. The International Fire Chief 43(9):9-15.

Foote, E.I.D. 1984. Structure survival on the 1990 Santa Barbara "Paint" Fire: a retrospective study of urban-wildland interface fire hazard mitigation factors. M.S. thesis, University of California, Berkeley.

Simard, A.J., D.A. Haines, R.W. Blank, and J.S. Frost. 1983. The Mack Lake Fire. USDA For. Serv. Gen. Tech. Rep. NC-83.

Pyne, S.J. 1982. Fire in America: A cultural history of wildland and rural fire. Princeton University Press.

Also see