Butte Fire
198528,560 acresIdaho and Montana
The Butte Fire burned 28,560 acres, about 45 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on July 20, 1985.
Watch how it happenedButte Fire · 1985
How it happened
See how severely each place burned, revealed outward from where it started.
How severely it burned
Burn severity inside the final perimeter, classified from Landsat images taken before and after the fire.
| Severity | Share | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered | 18% | 5,196 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 16% | 4,623 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 26% | 7,473 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 39% | 11,208 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 0.2% | 60 |
18% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 5,196 acres; 34% burned at moderate or high severity.
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (U.S. Geological Survey and USDA Forest Service). Classes come from the change in a Landsat burn index (dNBR) between images before and after the fire; acres are each class’s share of the fire’s mapped area.
Where it burned
Acres inside each county, measured from the satellite-mapped perimeter.
| Lemhi County | ID | 28,519 |
| Ravalli County | MT | 39 |
Other large fires in Idaho and Montana in 1985
- Crows Nest Fire62,760 acres
- Garat 1 Fire26,189 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.