Zaca Fire

2007242,003 acresCalifornia

The Zaca Fire burned 242,003 acres, about 378 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on July 4, 2007.

Watch how it happened

Zaca 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

Detections3,398satellite fire pixels

Fire milestones

Burn severityHigh, Moderate, Low, Unburned to low, Increased greenness

Burning nowAreas reached in the last half day of satellite passes

New York City, to scale301 square miles of land, drawn at the fire’s scale

Timing: NASA FIRMS satellite fire detections (3,398 MODIS) inside the final perimeter; each place takes the time of its nearest detection, so the order is satellite-observed but interpolated between passes, roughly every 12 hours. Severity: Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS, U.S. Forest Service), mapped from Landsat after the fire.

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 Zaca Fire

Burn severity by class
Severity	Share	Acres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered	74%	178,290
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive	15%	35,370
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive	6.5%	15,657
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change	5.2%	12,593

74% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 178,290 acres; 88% 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

Santa Barbara County	CA	225,118
Ventura County	CA	16,727

Other large fires in California in 2007

Witch Fire167,415 acres
Harris Fire90,374 acres
Moonlight Fire65,726 acres
Poomacha Fire47,467 acres
Buckweed Fire41,315 acres
Ranch Fire37,006 acres
Inyo Complex (Oak)28,426 acres
Santiago Fire27,585 acres

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