Mescal Fire
202179,300 acresArizona
The Mescal Fire burned 79,300 acres, about 124 square miles, across Gila County. It began on June 1, 2021.
Watch how it happenedMescal Fire · 2021
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 | 0.1% | 77 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 11% | 8,726 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 66% | 52,347 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 23% | 18,071 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 0.1% | 78 |
under 1% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 77 acres; 11% 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.
| Gila County | AZ | 79,361 |
Other large fires in Arizona in 2021
- Telegraph Fire187,117 acres
- Rafael Fire75,698 acres
- Backbone Fire41,157 acres
- Pinnacle Fire35,244 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.