Benwalk Fire
201228,133 acresIdaho
The Benwalk Fire burned 28,133 acres, about 44 square miles, across Elmore County. It began on July 9, 2012.
Watch how it happenedBenwalk Fire · 2012
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 | 0.9% | 253 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 24% | 6,873 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 57% | 16,084 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 4.4% | 1,241 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 0.1% | 27 |
| Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images | 13% | 3,656 |
1% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 253 acres; 25% 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.
| Elmore County | ID | 28,143 |
Other large fires in Idaho in 2012
- Mustang Complex377,684 acres
- Halstead Fire190,122 acres
- Kinyon Road Fire171,373 acres
- Trinity Ridge Fire141,762 acres
- Flat Top 2 Fire102,417 acres
- Cave Canyon Fire84,831 acres
- Cache Creek Fire75,463 acres
- Sheep Fire50,738 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.