Tower Fire
199650,810 acresOregon
The Tower Fire burned 50,810 acres, about 79 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on August 14, 1996.
Watch how it happenedTower Fire · 1996
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 | 36% | 18,073 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 23% | 11,664 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 19% | 9,632 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 22% | 11,287 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 0.3% | 154 |
36% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 18,073 acres; 59% 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.
| Umatilla County | OR | 43,437 |
| Grant County | OR | 7,389 |
Other large fires in Oregon in 1996
- Simnasho Fire118,426 acres
- Bogus Creek Fire56,686 acres
- Salt Complex (Salt Creek)50,211 acres
- Bull Complex (Summit)36,305 acres
- Cow Hollow Complex (Cow Hollow)31,255 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.