Williams Fire
200237,480 acresCalifornia
The Williams Fire burned 37,480 acres, about 59 square miles, across Los Angeles County. It began on September 22, 2002.
Watch how it happenedWilliams Fire · 2002
How it happened
Watch it burn in the order satellites saw it, coloured by how severely each place burned.
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% | 6,126 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 28% | 10,598 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 23% | 8,613 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 23% | 8,794 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 8.9% | 3,349 |
16% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 6,126 acres; 45% 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.
| Los Angeles County | CA | 37,505 |
Other large fires in California in 2002
- Biscuit Complex (Biscuit)494,980 acres
- Mcnally Fire146,478 acres
- Pines Fire65,352 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.