Big Pole Fire

200941,564 acresUtah

The Big Pole Fire burned 41,564 acres, about 65 square miles, across Tooele County. It began on August 6, 2009.

Watch how it happened

Big Pole Fire · 2009

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
Detections98satellite 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 Big Pole Fire
Burn severity by class
SeverityShareAcres
Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered22%8,950
Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive39%16,193
Lowsurface fire, most trees survive32%13,237
Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change7.7%3,184

22% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 8,950 acres; 60% 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
Tooele CountyUT41,579

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