Big Creek Fire
2009174,888 acresAlaska
The Big Creek Fire burned 174,888 acres, about 273 square miles, across Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area. It began on July 18, 2009.
Watch how it happenedBig Creek Fire · 2009
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 | 20% | 35,048 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 50% | 87,230 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 16% | 28,160 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 9.7% | 16,918 |
| Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images | 4.3% | 7,510 |
20% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 35,048 acres; 70% 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.
| Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area | AK | 175,021 |
Other large fires in Alaska in 2009
- Railbelt Complex (Minto Flats South)523,418 acres
- Tonclonukna Creek Fire158,922 acres
- Titna River Fire157,330 acres
- Nowitna Fire134,822 acres
- Zitziana Fire120,312 acres
- Wood River 1 Fire120,046 acres
- Railbelt Complex (Rex Creek)87,805 acres
- Stevens Creek 1 Fire81,227 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildland Fire Use.