Bear Creek Fire
201560,768 acresMontana
The Bear Creek Fire burned 60,768 acres, about 95 square miles, across Flathead County. It began on August 12, 2015.
Watch how it happenedBear Creek Fire · 2015
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 | 32% | 19,246 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 23% | 14,193 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 23% | 14,028 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 22% | 13,175 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 0.2% | 125 |
32% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 19,246 acres; 55% 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.
| Flathead County | MT | 60,710 |
Other large fires in Montana in 2015
- Family Peak Complex49,762 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.