Santiago Fire

200727,585 acresCalifornia

The Santiago Fire burned 27,585 acres, about 43 square miles, across Orange County. It began on October 21, 2007.

Watch how it happened

Santiago 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
Detections259satellite 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 Santiago Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered12%3,175
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive28%7,720
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive42%11,638
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change16%4,496
Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before2.0%557

12% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 3,175 acres; 39% 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
Orange CountyCA27,605

Other large fires in California in 2007

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