20260812 15343700 1.0 TRUE 150000000 5000 ISO19139 20260812 000000 ArcGIS Metadata 1.0 USFS Chief Information Office, Enterprise Data Warehouse Please send an e-mail to the address below. Washington DC 20250 US SM.FS.data@usda.gov dataset Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2024 [FPA_FOD_20260615] 2026-09-09T16:35:05 USDA Forest Service 2026-09-09T16:35:05 There is a wealth of information to be found in agency and local fire reports, but even the most rudimentary interagency analyses of wildfire numbers and area burned from the authoritative systems of record have been stymied to some degree by their disunity. While necessarily incomplete in some aspects, the database presented here is intended to facilitate fairly high-resolution geospatial analysis of U.S. fire activity over the period 1992-2024, based on available information from federal, state, and local systems of record. It was originally generated to support the national, interagency Fire Program Analysis (FPA) system (http://www.forestsandrangelands.gov/FPA/index.shtml). <DIV STYLE="text-align:Left;"><DIV><P><SPAN>This data publication contains a spatial database of wildfires that occurred in the United States (US) from 1992 to 2024. It is the sixth update of a publication originally generated to support the national Fire Program Analysis (FPA) system. The wildfire records were acquired from the reporting systems of federal, state, and local fire organizations. The following core data elements were required for records to be included in this data publication: discovery date, final fire size, and a point location at least as precise as a Public Land Survey System (PLSS) section (1-square mile grid). The data were transformed to conform, when possible, to the data standards of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG), including an updated wildfire-cause standard (approved August 2020). Basic error-checking was performed, and redundant records were identified and removed to the degree possible. The resulting product, referred to as the Fire Program Analysis fire-occurrence database (FPA FOD), includes 2.66 million geo-referenced wildfire records, representing a total of 209 million acres burned during the 33-year period. Identifiers necessary to link the point-based, final-fire-reporting information to published large-fire-perimeter and operational-situation-reporting datasets are included.</SPAN></P></DIV></DIV> Funding for this project was provided by USDA Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management (USFS FAM), USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS), and Fire Program Analysis (FPA). USFS Chief Information Office, Enterprise Data Warehouse Please send an e-mail to the address below. Washington DC 20250 US SM.FS.data@usda.gov Fire;fire detection;geoscientific​Information ISO 19115 Topic Categories geoscientific​Information <DIV STYLE="text-align:Left;"><DIV><P><SPAN>The USDA Forest Service makes no warranty, expressed or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, nor assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, reliability, completeness or utility of these geospatial data, or for the improper or incorrect use of these geospatial data. These geospatial data and related maps or graphics are not legal documents and are not intended to be used as such. The data and maps may not be used to determine title, ownership, legal descriptions or boundaries, legal jurisdiction, or restrictions that may be in place on either public or private land. Natural hazards may or may not be depicted on the data and maps, and users should exercise due caution. The data are dynamic and may change over time. The user is responsible to verify the limitations of the geospatial data and to use the data accordingly. These data were collected using funding from the U.S. Government and can be used without additional permissions or fees. If you use these data in a publication, presentation, or other research product please use the following citation: Short, Karen C. 2026. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2024 [FPA_FOD_20260615]. 7th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.7</SPAN></P></DIV></DIV> The U.S. Forest Service makes no warranty, express or implied, nor assumes any liability or responsibility for the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or utility of these geospatial data or for the improper or incorrect use of those data. The data are dynamic and may change over time. The user is responsible for verifying the limitations of the geospatial data and for using the data accordingly. This data publication is the seventh edition of the FPA FOD, which spans 1992-2024. The first edition spanned 1992-2011 (https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009), the second edition spanned 1992-2012 (https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.2), the third edition spanned 1992-2013 (https://doi.org/10.2838/RDS-2013-0009.3), the fourth edition spanned 1992-2015 (https://doi.org/10.2837/RDS-2013-0009.4), the fifth edition spanned 1992-2018 (https://doi.org/10.2837/RDS-2013-0009.5), the sixth edition spanned 1992-2020 (https://doi.org/10.2837/RDS-2013-0009.6). All editions were developed as described by Short (2014). Linkable, published large fire perimeters are available at https://www.mtbs.gov/; research-ready ICS-209 situation-reporting data are available at https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/All-hazards_dataset_mined_from_the_US_National_Incident_Management_System_1999-2020/19858927 and described at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-020-0403-0 (documentation and dataset update pending). 1992-01-01T00:00:00 2024-12-31T00:00:00 1 -165.881 144.9190063 68.186833 13.248600000000001 United States of America 0 The following core data elements were required for records to be included in this dataset: discovery date, final fire size, and a point location at least a precise as Public Land Survey System (PLSS) section (1-square mile grid). The data were transformed to conform, as best as possible, to the data standards of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG). The records were screened for errors and redundancy. All such procedures, including the process used to identify and purge redundant records, are detailed in supporting documentation (Short 2014). Viable state and local (i.e., nonfederal) records were not available from all states for all years. Estimates of wildfire numbers and area burned from the FPA FOD may therefore underrepresent actual wildfire activity in certain areas and time periods. Completeness in this regard was assessed by comparing estimates of wildfire numbers and area burned from the FPA FOD to published estimates of these metrics by state and year, and states were "scored" accordingly (i.e., low scores mean data are clearly lacking). High-scoring states include most of those in the U.S. Great Lakes, Southeastern, and Western regions (including Alaska), as well as a handful of others. Estimates of area burned tend to be less compromised than wildfire numbers by missing nonfederal records, because very large fires tend to account for the majority of area burned and are commonly responded to and reported by multiple agencies within the fire service. Efforts to gauge the completeness of the FPA FOD are detailed in supporting documentation (Short 2014). In the 5th edition, some previously unavailable nonfederal wildfire records for the period 1999-2015 were acquired either directly from the state fire services (NH, NJ) or indirectly from the updated National Association of State Foresters database (AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, HI, ID, IL, OK, SD) and included. This edition includes additional data from states/territories and years previously underrepresented, including Guam. These data were acquired from federal, state, and local wildfire reporting systems and are subject to inaccuracies and imprecision inherent in the original datasets. The wildfire records were acquired from the reporting systems of federal, state, and local fire organizations. These systems include the National Interagency Fire Management Integrated Database (USFS FIRESTAT archive), the USDI Wildland Fire Management Information (WFMI) system, the FWS Fire Management Information System, the National Association of State Foresters database, and the National Fire Incident Reporting System. FIRESTAT and WFMI were deprecated in 2020 and replaced by the Integrated Reporting of Wildland Fire Information (IRWIN) application and the Interagency Fire Occurrence Modules (InFORM). Records of fires in 2020-2024 that would have previously been archived in FIRESTAT and WFMI were acquired from IRWIN on 4/12/2022 and from InFORM thereafter. Additional data were acquired directly or indirectly from 33 U.S. states and the territories of Guam and Puerto Rico. The ICS-209 module of the SIT209 program was used to obtain records of large fires otherwise missing from the dataset. See \Supplements\FPA_FOD_source_list.pdf (included in the full data publication download), for a list of sources and their acronyms. Once identified, candidate records were extracted and transformed to conform, as best as possible, to the data standards (https://www.nwcg.gov/data-standards) of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG). The ability to conform the data to these standards was constrained by the level of adherence to those standards within the source reporting systems. After standardization, the data were screened for obvious errors and compiled into a single database. A multi-step process was then used to identify and purge redundant fire records. Identifiers necessary to link the point-based, final-fire-reporting information to published large-fire-perimeter and operational-situation-reporting datasets are included. More information regarding data-acquisition and processing is included in supporting documentation (Short 2014). Linkable, large-fire perimeter data are available at https://www.mtbs.gov/; research-ready ICS-209 situation-reporting data are available at https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/All-hazards_dataset_mined_from_the_US_National_Incident_Management_System_1999-2020/19858927 and described by St. Denis et al. (2020, 2023). 2026-06-15 withheld https://www.fs.usda.gov/rds/archive/catalog/RDS-2013-0009.7 2661383 Feature class: A collection of geographic features with the same geometry type (such as point, line, or polygon), the same attributes, and the same spatial reference. ESRI GIS Dictionary S_USA.Fire_FPA_FOD_7th_Fires Feature Class 2661383 OBJECTID Internal feature number. Esri Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated. OBJECTID OID 4 10 0 FOD_ID Unique numeric record identifier. US Forest Service Unique numeric record identifier. FOD_ID Integer 4 10 0 FPA_ID Unique identifier that contains information necessary to track back to the original record in the source dataset. US Forest Service Unique identifier that contains information necessary to track back to the original record in the source dataset. FPA_ID String 100 0 0 SOURCE_SYSTEM_TYPE Type of source database or system that the record was drawn from. US Forest Service FED Federal US Forest Service NONFED Nonfederal US Forest Service INTERAGCY Interagency US Forest Service SOURCE_SYSTEM_TYPE String 255 0 0 SOURCE_SYSTEM Name of or other identifier for source database or system that the record was drawn from. See \Supplements\FPA_FOD_source_list.pdf for a list of sources and their identifier and Short (2014) for additional source information. US Forest Service Name of or other identifier for source database or system that the record was drawn from. See Table 1 in Short (2014), or \Supplements\FPA_FOD_source_list.pdf, for a list of sources and their identifier. SOURCE_SYSTEM String 30 0 0 NWCG_REPORTING_AGENCY Active National Wildlife Coordinating Group (NWCG) Unit Identifier for the agency preparing the fire report. NWCG and US Forest Service BIA Bureau of Indian Affairs NWCG and US Forest Service BLM Bureal of Land Management NWCG and US Forest Service BOR Bureau of Reclamation NWCG and US Forest Service DOD Department of Defense NWCG and US Forest Service DOE Department of Energy NWCG and US Forest Service FS Forest Service NWCG and US Forest Service FWS Fish and Wildlife Service NWCG and US Forest Service IA Interagency Organization NWCG and US Forest Service NPS National Park Service NWCG and US Forest Service ST/C and L State, County, or Local Organization NWCG and US Forest Service TRIBE Tribal Organization NWCG and US Forest Service NWCG_REPORTING_AGENCY String 255 0 0 NWCG_REPORTING_UNIT_ID Active NWCG Unit Identifier for the unit preparing the fire report. NWCG and US Forest Service Active NWCG Unit Identifier for the unit preparing the fire report. NWCG_REPORTING_UNIT_ID String 255 0 0 NWCG_REPORTING_UNIT_NAME Active NWCG Unit Name for the unit preparing the fire report. NWCG and US Forest Service Name of reporting agency unit preparing the fire report, based on code/name in the source dataset. NWCG_REPORTING_UNIT_NAME String 255 0 0 SOURCE_REPORTING_UNIT Code for the agency unit preparing the fire report, based on code/name in the source dataset. Reporting Unit and US Forest Service Code for the agency unit preparing the fire report, based on code/name in the source dataset. SOURCE_REPORTING_UNIT String 30 0 0 SOURCE_REPORTING_UNIT_NAME Name of reporting agency unit preparing the fire report, based on code/name in the source dataset. Reporting Unit and US Forest Service Name of reporting agency unit preparing the fire report, based on code/name in the source dataset. SOURCE_REPORTING_UNIT_NAME String 255 0 0 LOCAL_FIRE_REPORT_ID Number or code that uniquely identifies an incident report for a particular reporting unit and a particular calendar year. Reporting Unit and US Forest Service Local Fire Report ID LOCAL_FIRE_REPORT_ID String 255 0 0 LOCAL_INCIDENT_ID Number or code that uniquely identifies an incident for a particular local fire management organization within a particular calendar year. Reporting Unit and US Forest Service Local Incident ID LOCAL_INCIDENT_ID String 255 0 0 FIRE_CODE Code used within the interagency wildland fire community to track and compile cost information for emergency fire suppression expenditures (https://www.firecode.gov/). Reporting Unit and US Forest Service Code used within the interagency wildland fire community to track and compile cost information for emergency fire suppression (https://www.firecode.gov/). FIRE_CODE String 10 0 0 FIRE_NAME Name of the incident, from the fire report (primary) or ICS-209 report (secondary). Reporting Unit and US Forest Service Name of the incident, from the fire report (primary) or ICS-209 report (secondary). FIRE_NAME String 255 0 0 ICS_209_PLUS_INCIDENT_JOIN_ID Primary identifier needed to join into operational situation reporting data for the incident in the ICS-209-PLUS dataset. US Forest Service Primary identifier needed to join into operational situation reporting data for the incident in the ICS-209-PLUS dataset. ICS_209_PLUS_INCIDENT_JOIN_ID String 255 0 0 ICS_209_PLUS_COMPLEX_JOIN_ID If part of a complex, secondary identifier potentially needed to join to operational situation reporting data for the incident in the ICS-209-PLUS dataset. US Forest Service If part of a complex, secondary identifier potentially needed to join to operational situation reporting data for the incident in the ICS-209-PLUS dataset (2014 and later only). ICS_209_PLUS_COMPLEX_JOIN_ID String 255 0 0 MTBS_ID Incident identifier, from the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) perimeter dataset. MTBS and US Forest Service Incident identifier, from the MTBS perimeter dataset. MTBS_ID String 255 0 0 MTBS_FIRE_NAME Name of the incident, from the MTBS perimeter dataset. MTBS and US Forest Service Name of the incident, from the MTBS perimeter dataset. MTBS_FIRE_NAME String 50 0 0 COMPLEX_NAME Name of the complex under which the fire was ultimately managed, when discernible. US Forest Service Name of the complex under which the fire was ultimately managed, when discernible. COMPLEX_NAME String 255 0 0 FIRE_YEAR Calendar year in which the fire was discovered or confirmed to exist. Reporting Unit and US Forest Service Calendar year in which the fire was discovered or confirmed to exist. FIRE_YEAR Short 0 5 0 DISCOVERY_DATE Date on which the fire was discovered or confirmed to exist. Reporting Unit and US Forest Service Date on which the fire was discovered or confirmed to exist. DISCOVERY_DATE Date 0 0 0 DISCOVERY_DOY Day of year on which the fire was discovered or confirmed to exist. Reporting Unit and US Forest Service Day of year on which the fire was discovered or confirmed to exist. DISCOVERY_DOY Integer 4 10 0 DISCOVERY_TIME Local time of day that the fire was discovered or confirmed to exist. Reporting Unit and US Forest Service Time of day that the fire was discovered or confirmed to exist. DISCOVERY_TIME String 4 0 0 NWCG_CAUSE_CLASSIFICATION Broad classification of the reason the fire occurred Reporting Unit and US Forest Service Human Human-caused fire Reporting Unit and US Forest Service Natural Natural-caused fire Reporting Unit and US Forest Service Missing data/not specified/undetermined Cause of the fire is missing, not specified, or underdetermined Reporting Unit and US Forest Service NWCG_CAUSE_CLASSIFICATION String 255 0 0 NWCG_GENERAL_CAUSE Event or circumstance that started a fire or set the stage for its occurrence. Reporting Unit and US Forest Service Event or circumstance that started a fire or set the stage for its occurrence (Arson/incendiarism, Debris and open burning, Equipment and vehicle use, Firearms and explosives use, Fireworks, Misuse of fire by a minor, Natural, Power generation/transmission/distribution, Railroad operations and maintenance, Recreation and ceremony, Smoking, Other causes, Missing data/not specified/undetermined). NWCG_GENERAL_CAUSE String 255 0 0 NWCG_CAUSE_AGE_CATEGORY If cause attributed to children (ages 0-12) or adolescents (13-17), the value for this data element is set to Minor; otherwise null. Reporting Unit and US Forest Service Minor Fire caused by a minor, defined as: children (ages 0-12) or adolescents (13-17) Reporting Unit and US Forest Service Null Fire not caused by a minor Reporting Unit and US Forest Service NWCG_CAUSE_AGE_CATEGORY String 255 0 0 CONT_DATE Date on which the fire was declared contained or otherwise controlled (mm/dd/yyyy where mm=month, dd=day, and yyyy=year). Reporting Unit and US Forest Service Date on which the fire was declared contained or otherwise controlled (mm/dd/yyyy where mm=month, dd=day, and yyyy=year). CONT_DATE Date 0 0 0 CONT_TIME Local time of day that the fire was declared contained or otherwise controlled (hhmm where hh=hour, mm=minutes). Reporting Unit and US Forest Service Time of day that the fire was declared contained or otherwise controlled (hhmm where hh=hour, mm=minutes). CONT_TIME String 4 0 0 CONT_DOY Day of year on which the fire was declared contained or otherwise controlled. Reporting Unit and US Forest Service Day of year on which the fire was declared contained or otherwise controlled. CONT_DOY Integer 4 10 0 FIRE_SIZE The estimate of acres within the final perimeter of the fire. Reporting Unit and US Forest Service Acres FIRE_SIZE Double 8 38 8 FIRE_SIZE_CLASS Code for fire size based on the number of acres within the final fire perimeter. NWCG A Greater than 0 but less than or equal to 0.25 acres NWCG B 0.26-9.9 acres NWCG C 10.0-99.9 acres NWCG D 100-299 acres NWCG E 300 to 999 acres NWCG F 1000 to 4999 acres NWCG G 5000 acres or greater NWCG FIRE_SIZE_CLASS String 1 0 0 LATITUDE Latitude (NAD 83) for point location (origin) of the fire (decimal degrees). Reporting Unit and US Forest Service Decimal degrees LATITUDE Double 8 38 8 LONGITUDE Latitude (NAD 83) for point location (origin) of the fire (decimal degrees). Reporting Unit and US Forest Service Decimal degrees LONGITUDE Double 8 38 8 OWNER_DESCR Name of primary owner or entity responsible for managing the land at the point of origin of the fire at the time of the incident. Reporting Unit and US Forest Service Name of primary owner or entity responsible for managing the land at the point of origin of the fire at the time of the incident. OWNER_DESCR String 100 0 0 STATE Two-letter alphabetic code for the state in which the fire burned (or originated), based on the nominal designation in the fire report (not from a spatial overlay). Reporting Unit and US Forest Service Two-letter alphabetic code for the state in which the fire burned (or originated), based on the nominal designation in the fire report. STATE String 255 0 0 COUNTY County, or equivalent, in which the fire burned (or originated), based on nominal designation in the fire report (not from a spatial overlay). Reporting Unit and US Forest Service County, or equivalent, in which the fire burned (or originated), based on nominal designation in the fire report. COUNTY String 255 0 0 FIPS_CODE Five-digit code from the Federal Information Process Standards (FIPS) publication 6-4 for representation of counties and equivalent entities, based on the nominal designation in the fire report (not from a spatial overlay). US Forest Service Five-digit code from the Federal Information Process Standards (FIPS) publication 6-4 for representation of counties and equivalent entities, based on the nominal designation in the fire report. FIPS_CODE String 255 0 0 FIPS_NAME County name from the FIPS publication 6-4 for representation of counties and equivalent entities, based on the nominal designation in the fire report (not from a spatial overlay). US Forest Service County name from the FIPS publication 6-4 for representation of counties and equivalent entities, based on the nominal designation in the fire report. FIPS_NAME String 255 0 0 GLOBALID A type of UUID (Universal Unique Identifier) in which values are automatically assigned by the geodatabase when a row is created. Esri A type of UUID (Universal Unique Identifier) in which values are automatically assigned by the geodatabase when a row is created. GLOBALID globalid 0 0 0 EPSG 6.12(3.0.1) FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata FGDC-STD-001-1998