The archived outline of the South Fire spans about 8.6 km from west to east and 7.5 km from south to north. CAL FIRE places the incident at Southeast aspect of Tomhead Mountain, South of Platina. The mapped boundary provides a second way to locate the event: it shows the extent around that reference location.
| Start listed by CAL FIRE | 5 September 2019 |
|---|---|
| County listing | Tehama |
| Reported area in hectares | 2,158 ha (converted from acres) |
| Extent of the mapped outline | 8.6 × 7.5 km (west–east × south–north) |
| Containment entry in the archive | 2 December 2019 |
| Perimeter collection method as recorded | Infrared Interpretation |
What the perimeter shows
The two spans differ by only 1.1 km. That does not make this a circular burn: the dimensions measure the outermost coordinates, leaving indentations and gaps invisible. Use the polygon itself, rather than its enclosing rectangle, to check whether a location intersects the footprint.
Two estimates of area
The incident report gives 5,332 acres; the interagency feature stores 5,334.0 GIS acres. The mapped value is 2.0 acres above the reported value (0.04%). This compares two published measurements, not two observation times. The difference cannot be read as fire growth.
A similar-sized fire for comparison
The Tomahawk Fire of 2014 is the closest match by reported acreage in this 100-case collection (5,367 acres). Its mapped spans are 6.4 by 6.3 km, west–east then south–north, versus 8.6 by 7.5 km here. The broad proportions are comparable. That does not establish that fuel, wind or suppression tactics were similar.
Sources and map method
- South Fire · CAL FIRE incident record
- NIFC interagency history · source perimeter (GeoJSON)
- Tomahawk Fire · comparison incident
- Comparison perimeter · interagency record
Spans use the geographic extremes of a generalized boundary, converted to kilometres at its middle latitude. They are approximate map dimensions, not distances travelled by flames. The GIS acreage is the source attribute, not an area recalculated from the simplified outline.