Hello,
I'm looking for a fire on FIRMS from a semi truck carrying lithium-ion batteries that burned from July 26 to 28, 2024 on I-15 between Barstow and Baker, CA. I would have thought it would appear on FIRMS, but I didn't see a hot spot in that area. There were some further south, but none in the exact area of the fire.
I understand cloud coverage and satellite paths/time affect FIRMS recording a fire. But this one lasted two days and battery fires burn pretty hot. Is there another explanation for why I can't find it?
Finding a fire on FIRMS
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FIRMS - dylan.mendes
- Subject Matter Expert
- Posts: 14
- Joined: Tue May 13, 2025 2:45 pm America/New_York
Re: Finding a fire on FIRMS
Hello @sstrott ,
Thanks for your interest in FIRMS.
We did a little research on this incident, and it appears it occurred in the vicinity of mile post 133, which is very close to the active fire detection identified by GOES West (GOES-18) at 15:50 on July 26, 2024. That appears to be the only satellite active fire detection over the duration of July 26-28, 2024. No detections were observed from the higher spatial resolution satellites, but that may be due to the size and intensity of the fire activity during satellite overpass and any factors that may have affected the visibility of the fire event (clouds, etc.).
Geostationary satellites like GOES provide outstanding temporal resolution with observations conducted every 10 minutes. However, due to various technical limitations associated with geostationary data and current algorithm performance, FIRMS thresholds the geostationary data to only those detections of relatively higher confidence. So, there is a possibility of additional geostationary detections of lower confidence that may have occurred. Geostationary satellite imagery is relatively coarse compared to the polar orbiting sites. GOES ABI thermal bands are 2km spatial resolution. Under nominal viewing conditions, a flaming fire occupying an area of ~4,000 square meters can be detected. Under optimal conditions, relatively intense fires as small as ~1,000 square meters are detectable. We found some news reports with pictures of the event (see below). In this case, the fire is relatively small, but the one GOES detection that occurred may have been associated with a period of time where the fire may have been burning very intensely and it was detected.
Possible detection on FIRMS: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#m:advanced;d:2024-07-26..2024-07-28;l:fires_goes_all,fires_goes_g18,fires_goes_g18frp,fires_goes_g19,fires_goes_g19frp,street;@-116.090,35.184,11.403z
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/27/us/interstate-15-california-las-vegas-hazmat-fire
https://www.sbsun.com/2024/07/26/15-freeway-closed-in-both-directions-in-baker-after-container-of-lithium-ion-batteries-catches-fire/
Please let us know if you have any additional questions.
Regards,
Dylan
FIRMS Developer
FIRMS Team
Thanks for your interest in FIRMS.
We did a little research on this incident, and it appears it occurred in the vicinity of mile post 133, which is very close to the active fire detection identified by GOES West (GOES-18) at 15:50 on July 26, 2024. That appears to be the only satellite active fire detection over the duration of July 26-28, 2024. No detections were observed from the higher spatial resolution satellites, but that may be due to the size and intensity of the fire activity during satellite overpass and any factors that may have affected the visibility of the fire event (clouds, etc.).
Geostationary satellites like GOES provide outstanding temporal resolution with observations conducted every 10 minutes. However, due to various technical limitations associated with geostationary data and current algorithm performance, FIRMS thresholds the geostationary data to only those detections of relatively higher confidence. So, there is a possibility of additional geostationary detections of lower confidence that may have occurred. Geostationary satellite imagery is relatively coarse compared to the polar orbiting sites. GOES ABI thermal bands are 2km spatial resolution. Under nominal viewing conditions, a flaming fire occupying an area of ~4,000 square meters can be detected. Under optimal conditions, relatively intense fires as small as ~1,000 square meters are detectable. We found some news reports with pictures of the event (see below). In this case, the fire is relatively small, but the one GOES detection that occurred may have been associated with a period of time where the fire may have been burning very intensely and it was detected.
Possible detection on FIRMS: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#m:advanced;d:2024-07-26..2024-07-28;l:fires_goes_all,fires_goes_g18,fires_goes_g18frp,fires_goes_g19,fires_goes_g19frp,street;@-116.090,35.184,11.403z
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/27/us/interstate-15-california-las-vegas-hazmat-fire
https://www.sbsun.com/2024/07/26/15-freeway-closed-in-both-directions-in-baker-after-container-of-lithium-ion-batteries-catches-fire/
Please let us know if you have any additional questions.
Regards,
Dylan
FIRMS Developer
FIRMS Team