Garfield Creek Fire
199777,430 acresAlaska
The Garfield Creek Fire burned 77,430 acres, about 121 square miles, across Nome Census Area. It began on July 22, 1997.
Watch how it happenedGarfield Creek Fire · 1997
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 | 0.6% | 431 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 10% | 7,799 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 42% | 32,668 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 32% | 24,587 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 10% | 7,907 |
| Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images | 5.2% | 4,038 |
1% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 431 acres; 11% 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.
| Nome Census Area | AK | 77,483 |
Other large fires in Alaska in 1997
- B 484 Fire44,810 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.