Paper Fire
198749,333 acresCalifornia
The Paper Fire burned 49,333 acres, about 77 square miles, across Tuolumne County. It began on August 31, 1987.
Watch how it happenedPaper 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 | 22% | 10,669 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 28% | 13,962 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 30% | 15,039 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 19% | 9,496 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 0.3% | 167 |
22% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 10,669 acres; 50% 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.
| Tuolumne County | CA | 49,295 |
Other large fires in California in 1987
- King Titus Fire71,333 acres
- Yellow 2 Fire53,586 acres
- Larson Fire49,298 acres
- Hamm Fire39,369 acres
- Clark Fire39,235 acres
- Fort Copper Fire36,302 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.