Blue Butte Fire
198662,430 acresIdaho
The Blue Butte Fire burned 62,430 acres, about 98 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on August 10, 1986.
Watch how it happenedBlue Butte Fire · 1986
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 10% | 6,358 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 81% | 50,576 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 8.1% | 5,065 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 0.7% | 431 |
No part of the fire was classed as high severity; 10% burned at moderate 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.
| Owyhee County | ID | 62,122 |
| Elmore County | ID | 321 |
Other large fires in Idaho in 1986
- Bissell Ck Fire40,816 acres
- Van Dusen Fire39,868 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.