Fool Creek Fire

200753,902 acresMontana

The Fool Creek Fire burned 53,902 acres, about 84 square miles, across 3 counties. It began on June 28, 2007.

Watch how it happened

Fool Creek Fire · 2007

How it happened

Watch it burn in the order satellites saw it, coloured by how severely each place burned.

About this replay
Date (UTC)—Historical replay
Burned so far—acres
High severity—of the area so far
Detections653satellite fire pixels

How severely it burned

Burn severity inside the final perimeter, classified from Landsat images taken before and after the fire.

Map of burn severity across the Fool Creek Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered46%24,705
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive22%12,088
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive15%8,096
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change15%7,941
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before0.1%44
Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images1.9%1,027

46% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 24,705 acres; 68% 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.

Acres burned by county
Flathead CountyMT26,392
Teton CountyMT21,767
Lewis and Clark CountyMT5,751

Other large fires in Montana in 2007

Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.