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Jasper Fire, Jewel Cave National Monument, August 2000

The Jasper wildfire of August and September 2000 was the largest fire in the recorded history of the Black Hills. The fire ignited on August 24, 2000, near Custer, South Dakota, and is believed to have been human-caused. On the first day, the fire doubled in size every hour. It spread at an average rate of over 7 acres (about 7 football fields) per minute, consuming 3,655 acres by the end of the day. Fueled by unstable weather conditions, the fire continued to grow during both the day and night of the 25th. On the third day, strong winds and extreme conditions caused the fire to grow by 48,555 acres, or 76 square miles, in the space of only a few hours. Fire behavior moderated on subsequent days; however, fuel moisture remained extremely low, and the fire grew by another 23,000 acres before containment on September 8. The fire?s final size was 83,508 acres, the largest fire in the recorded history of the Black Hills.

View of structures with burned areas

National Park Service

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Wildfires, (LCSH)
, Forest fires, (LCSH)
, Fire extinction, (LCSH)
, Fire management, (LCSH)

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Jewel Cave National Monument, Code: JECA
Fire and Aviation Management Program, Code: FIRE

Jewel Cave National Monument, Custer County, South Dakota
Latitude: 43.7309989929199, Longitude: -103.830001831055

Legacy NPS Focus Record ID : 231332

NPS Fire and Aviation Digital Collection

09/25/2003

08/24/2000 - 09/24/2000

Digital image (JPG ; 45.5 KB ; 500 x 320; 240 dpi; 24 bit color). Encoded as MrSID format

Public Can View

NPS staff

Jewel Cave National Monument

Administrator

Wednesday, September 29, 2004 6:26:03 PM

Wednesday, August 9, 2017 3:35:18 PM

jeca-jasperrx-2003_07.jpg

Monday, January 1, 0001 12:00:00 AM

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