Four Mile Fire
200927,585 acresNew Mexico
The Four Mile Fire burned 27,585 acres, about 43 square miles, across Chaves County. It began on April 23, 2009.
Watch how it happenedFour Mile 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 6.5% | 1,805 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 80% | 22,102 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 13% | 3,661 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 0.1% | 17 |
No part of the fire was classed as high severity; 7% burned at moderate 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.
| Chaves County | NM | 27,608 |
Other large fires in New Mexico in 2009
- Pasco Fire104,041 acres
- Cato Fire53,699 acres
- Diamond Fire32,056 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.