Fort Copper Fire
198736,302 acresCalifornia
The Fort Copper Fire burned 36,302 acres, about 57 square miles, across Siskiyou County. It began on August 30, 1987.
Watch how it happenedFort Copper Fire · 1987
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 | 16% | 5,958 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 23% | 8,394 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 41% | 14,918 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 19% | 6,949 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 0.2% | 83 |
16% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 5,958 acres; 40% 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.
| Siskiyou County | CA | 36,332 |
Other large fires in California in 1987
- King Titus Fire71,333 acres
- Yellow 2 Fire53,586 acres
- Paper Fire49,333 acres
- Larson Fire49,298 acres
- Hamm Fire39,369 acres
- Clark Fire39,235 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.