Rush Fire
2012307,085 acresCalifornia and Nevada
The Rush Fire burned 307,085 acres, about 480 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on August 12, 2012.
Watch how it happenedRush 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 | 0.5% | 1,438 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 18% | 56,310 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 52% | 159,357 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 8.9% | 27,295 |
| Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images | 20% | 62,659 |
under 1% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 1,438 acres; 19% 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.
| Lassen County | CA | 264,722 |
| Washoe County | NV | 42,089 |
Other large fires in California and Nevada in 2012
- Holloway Fire457,680 acres
- Barry Point Fire91,493 acres
- Chips Fire79,959 acres
- Lost Fire57,661 acres
- Bagley Fire47,705 acres
- North Pass Fire43,653 acres
- Willow Fire43,578 acres
- Del Fire39,039 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.