Big River Fire
200930,312 acresAlaska
The Big River Fire burned 30,312 acres, about 47 square miles, across Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area. It began on July 5, 2009.
Watch how it happenedBig River 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 | 43% | 13,100 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 41% | 12,540 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 10% | 3,109 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 2.4% | 730 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 0.1% | 20 |
| Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images | 2.7% | 813 |
43% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 13,100 acres; 85% 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 | 30,325 |
Other large fires in Alaska in 2009
- Railbelt Complex (Minto Flats South)523,418 acres
- Big Creek Fire174,888 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
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.