West Fork Fire
201561,723 acresAlaska
The West Fork Fire burned 61,723 acres, about 96 square miles, across Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area. It began on June 20, 2015.
Watch how it happenedWest Fork 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 | 18% | 11,313 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 37% | 23,139 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 24% | 15,040 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 12% | 7,479 |
| Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images | 7.7% | 4,748 |
18% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 11,313 acres; 56% 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 | 61,750 |
Other large fires in Alaska in 2015
- Middle Yukon Fires407,220 acres
- Tobatokh Fire220,037 acres
- Isahultila Fire192,663 acres
- Holtnakatna Fire180,199 acres
- Tanana Area Fires176,773 acres
- Rock Fire142,933 acres
- Big Mud River 1 Fire140,914 acres
- Munsatli 2 Fire124,572 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.