Wildfire Boundary Polygons from USGS and CalFire in cloud native formats

Cloud Native serializations of publicly available fire data from USGS and Calfire. Calfire data includes controlled burn treatments. Data through 2022

pmtiles

fire

parquet

united states

Product Details

Visibility: Public
Owner: Carl Boettiger
Created: 19 Mar 2024
Last Updated: 15 Aug 2025

Product Contents

root

Product Details

Product Contents

Wildfire Boundary Polygons from USGS and CalFire in cloud native formats

Cloud Native serializations of publicly available fire data from USGS and Calfire. Calfire data includes controlled burn treatments. Data through 2022

Product Details

Visibility: Public
Owner: Carl Boettiger
Created: 19 Mar 2024
Last Updated: 15 Aug 2025

Product Contents

root

README

Fire Datasets

This bucket contains three fire-related vector datasets:

CAL FIRE Wildfire Perimeters — California wildfire perimeters through 2024
CAL FIRE Prescribed Burns — California prescribed burn treatments through 2024
USGS Wildland Fire Combined Dataset — National wildfire perimeters 1878–2021

All three datasets are polygon geometries processed into GeoParquet, PMTiles, and H3 hex Parquet.

1. CAL FIRE Wildfire Perimeters (`calfire-2024/firep`)

Source: CAL FIRE FRAP GIS Features: 22,810 fire perimeter polygons Coverage: California, 1878–2024 Source layer: firep (PMTiles source-layer name)

DuckDB Example

MapLibre GL JS Example

Schema

Column	Type	Description
YEAR_	int16	Calendar year the fire was recorded
STATE	string	State abbreviation (always 'CA')
AGENCY	string	Responding agency code
UNIT_ID	string	CAL FIRE unit identifier
FIRE_NAME	string	Name of the fire
INC_NUM	string	Local incident number
IRWINID	string	IRWIN system incident ID
ALARM_DATE	datetime	Date the fire was reported
CONT_DATE	datetime	Date the fire was contained
C_METHOD	int16	Collection method code
CAUSE	int16	Fire cause code
COMPLEX_NAME

2. CAL FIRE Prescribed Burns (`calfire-2024/rxburn`)

Source: CAL FIRE FRAP GIS Features: 10,675 prescribed burn polygons Coverage: California, 1980s–2024 Source layer: rxburn (PMTiles source-layer name)

DuckDB Example

MapLibre GL JS Example

Schema

Column	Type	Description
YEAR_	int16	Calendar year of treatment
STATE	string	State abbreviation (always 'CA')
AGENCY	string	Responding agency code
UNIT_ID	string	CAL FIRE unit identifier
TREATMENT_ID	string	Unique treatment identifier
TREATMENT_NAME	string	Name of the treatment
TREATMENT_TYPE	int16	Treatment type code
START_DATE	datetime	Treatment start date
END_DATE	datetime	Treatment end date
TREATED_AC	float64	Reported treated area in acres
GIS_ACRES	float32	GIS-calculated area in acres
RX_CONSUM

3. USGS Wildland Fire Combined Dataset (`usgs-fires-2021/combined`)

Source: USGS ScienceBase Features: 135,061 fire perimeter polygons Coverage: Continental US, Alaska, Hawaii, US territories, 1878–2021 Source layer: combined (PMTiles source-layer name)

This dataset combines records from dozens of federal, state, and local data sources into a single de-duplicated national inventory. Where multiple sources cover the same fire, the highest-quality polygon is selected and source attributes are preserved in list fields.

DuckDB Example

H3 Hex Example (burn area by hex cell)

MapLibre GL JS Example

Schema

Column	Type	Description
USGS_Assigned_ID	int32	Unique USGS identifier
Assigned_Fire_Type	string	Fire type (Wildfire, Prescribed Fire, etc.)
Fire_Year	int16	Year the fire occurred
Fire_Polygon_Tier	int16	Source quality tier (1 = highest quality)
Fire_Attribute_Tiers	string	Quality tier per attribute
GIS_Acres	float64	GIS-calculated area in acres
GIS_Hectares	float64	GIS-calculated area in hectares
Source_Datasets	string	Contributing source dataset names
Listed_Fire_Types	string	All fire types from contributing sources
Listed_Fire_Names	string	All fire names from contributing sources
Listed_Fire_Codes	string

Citation

CAL FIRE datasets: California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), Forest and Range Assessment Program (FRAP). Fire Perimeter and Prescribed Burn data, 2024 release. https://www.fire.ca.gov/what-we-do/fire-resource-assessment-program

USGS dataset: Welty, J.L., and Jeffries, M.I., 2021, Combined wildfire datasets for the United States and certain territories, 1878-2019: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9ZXGFY3

README

Fire Datasets

This bucket contains three fire-related vector datasets:

CAL FIRE Wildfire Perimeters — California wildfire perimeters through 2024
CAL FIRE Prescribed Burns — California prescribed burn treatments through 2024
USGS Wildland Fire Combined Dataset — National wildfire perimeters 1878–2021

All three datasets are polygon geometries processed into GeoParquet, PMTiles, and H3 hex Parquet.

1. CAL FIRE Wildfire Perimeters (`calfire-2024/firep`)

Source: CAL FIRE FRAP GIS Features: 22,810 fire perimeter polygons Coverage: California, 1878–2024 Source layer: firep (PMTiles source-layer name)

DuckDB Example

MapLibre GL JS Example

Schema

Column	Type	Description
YEAR_	int16	Calendar year the fire was recorded
STATE	string	State abbreviation (always 'CA')
AGENCY	string	Responding agency code
UNIT_ID	string	CAL FIRE unit identifier
FIRE_NAME	string	Name of the fire
INC_NUM	string	Local incident number
IRWINID	string	IRWIN system incident ID
ALARM_DATE	datetime	Date the fire was reported
CONT_DATE	datetime	Date the fire was contained
C_METHOD	int16	Collection method code
CAUSE	int16	Fire cause code
COMPLEX_NAME

2. CAL FIRE Prescribed Burns (`calfire-2024/rxburn`)

Source: CAL FIRE FRAP GIS Features: 10,675 prescribed burn polygons Coverage: California, 1980s–2024 Source layer: rxburn (PMTiles source-layer name)

DuckDB Example

MapLibre GL JS Example

Schema

Column	Type	Description
YEAR_	int16	Calendar year of treatment
STATE	string	State abbreviation (always 'CA')
AGENCY	string	Responding agency code
UNIT_ID	string	CAL FIRE unit identifier
TREATMENT_ID	string	Unique treatment identifier
TREATMENT_NAME	string	Name of the treatment
TREATMENT_TYPE	int16	Treatment type code
START_DATE	datetime	Treatment start date
END_DATE	datetime	Treatment end date
TREATED_AC	float64	Reported treated area in acres
GIS_ACRES	float32	GIS-calculated area in acres
RX_CONSUM

3. USGS Wildland Fire Combined Dataset (`usgs-fires-2021/combined`)

DuckDB Example

H3 Hex Example (burn area by hex cell)

MapLibre GL JS Example

Schema

Column	Type	Description
USGS_Assigned_ID	int32	Unique USGS identifier
Assigned_Fire_Type	string	Fire type (Wildfire, Prescribed Fire, etc.)
Fire_Year	int16	Year the fire occurred
Fire_Polygon_Tier	int16	Source quality tier (1 = highest quality)
Fire_Attribute_Tiers	string	Quality tier per attribute
GIS_Acres	float64	GIS-calculated area in acres
GIS_Hectares	float64	GIS-calculated area in hectares
Source_Datasets	string	Contributing source dataset names
Listed_Fire_Types	string	All fire types from contributing sources
Listed_Fire_Names	string	All fire names from contributing sources
Listed_Fire_Codes	string

Citation

1import duckdb
2
3conn = duckdb.connect()
4conn.execute("INSTALL httpfs; LOAD httpfs;")
5conn.execute("""
6CREATE SECRET (
7  TYPE S3,
8  KEY_ID '',
9  SECRET '',
10  ENDPOINT 's3-west.nrp-nautilus.io',
11  USE_SSL 'TRUE',
12  URL_STYLE 'path'
13)
14""")
15
16result = conn.execute("""
17SELECT h3_index, SUM(GIS_Acres) AS total_acres
18FROM read_parquet(
19  'https://s3-west.nrp-nautilus.io/public-fire/usgs-fires-2021/combined/hex/h0=*/data_0.parquet',
20  hive_partitioning=true
21)
22GROUP BY h3_index
23ORDER BY total_acres DESC
24LIMIT 20
25""").df()

1import duckdb
2
3conn = duckdb.connect()
4conn.execute("INSTALL httpfs; LOAD httpfs;")
5conn.execute("""
6CREATE SECRET (
7  TYPE S3,
8  KEY_ID '',
9  SECRET '',
10  ENDPOINT 's3-west.nrp-nautilus.io',
11  USE_SSL 'TRUE',
12  URL_STYLE 'path'
13)
14""")
15
16result = conn.execute("""
17SELECT h3_index, SUM(GIS_Acres) AS total_acres
18FROM read_parquet(
19  'https://s3-west.nrp-nautilus.io/public-fire/usgs-fires-2021/combined/hex/h0=*/data_0.parquet',
20  hive_partitioning=true
21)
22GROUP BY h3_index
23ORDER BY total_acres DESC
24LIMIT 20
25""").df()

1LOAD spatial;
2SELECT YEAR_, FIRE_NAME, AGENCY, GIS_ACRES
3FROM read_parquet('https://s3-west.nrp-nautilus.io/public-fire/calfire-2024/firep.parquet')
4WHERE YEAR_ >= 2020
5ORDER BY GIS_ACRES DESC
6LIMIT 10;

1LOAD spatial;
2SELECT YEAR_, FIRE_NAME, AGENCY, GIS_ACRES
3FROM read_parquet('https://s3-west.nrp-nautilus.io/public-fire/calfire-2024/firep.parquet')
4WHERE YEAR_ >= 2020
5ORDER BY GIS_ACRES DESC
6LIMIT 10;

1LOAD spatial;
2SELECT YEAR_, TREATMENT_NAME, AGENCY, TREATED_AC
3FROM read_parquet('https://s3-west.nrp-nautilus.io/public-fire/calfire-2024/rxburn.parquet')
4WHERE YEAR_ >= 2015
5ORDER BY TREATED_AC DESC
6LIMIT 10;

1LOAD spatial;
2SELECT YEAR_, TREATMENT_NAME, AGENCY, TREATED_AC
3FROM read_parquet('https://s3-west.nrp-nautilus.io/public-fire/calfire-2024/rxburn.parquet')
4WHERE YEAR_ >= 2015
5ORDER BY TREATED_AC DESC
6LIMIT 10;

1LOAD spatial;
2SELECT Fire_Year, Assigned_Fire_Type, GIS_Acres, Listed_Fire_Names
3FROM read_parquet('https://s3-west.nrp-nautilus.io/public-fire/usgs-fires-2021/combined.parquet')
4WHERE Fire_Year >= 2000 AND GIS_Acres > 100000
5ORDER BY GIS_Acres DESC
6LIMIT 20;

1LOAD spatial;
2SELECT Fire_Year, Assigned_Fire_Type, GIS_Acres, Listed_Fire_Names
3FROM read_parquet('https://s3-west.nrp-nautilus.io/public-fire/usgs-fires-2021/combined.parquet')
4WHERE Fire_Year >= 2000 AND GIS_Acres > 100000
5ORDER BY GIS_Acres DESC
6LIMIT 20;

1map.addSource('calfire-firep', {
2  type: 'vector',
3  url: 'pmtiles://https://s3-west.nrp-nautilus.io/public-fire/calfire-2024/firep.pmtiles'
4});
5map.addLayer({
6  id: 'calfire-firep-fill',
7  type: 'fill',
8  source: 'calfire-firep',
9  'source-layer': 'firep',
10  paint: {
11    'fill-color': '#d62728',
12    'fill-opacity': 0.5
13  }
14});

1map.addSource('calfire-firep', {
2  type: 'vector',
3  url: 'pmtiles://https://s3-west.nrp-nautilus.io/public-fire/calfire-2024/firep.pmtiles'
4});
5map.addLayer({
6  id: 'calfire-firep-fill',
7  type: 'fill',
8  source: 'calfire-firep',
9  'source-layer': 'firep',
10  paint: {
11    'fill-color': '#d62728',
12    'fill-opacity': 0.5
13  }
14});

1map.addSource('calfire-rxburn', {
2  type: 'vector',
3  url: 'pmtiles://https://s3-west.nrp-nautilus.io/public-fire/calfire-2024/rxburn.pmtiles'
4});
5map.addLayer({
6  id: 'calfire-rxburn-fill',
7  type: 'fill',
8  source: 'calfire-rxburn',
9  'source-layer': 'rxburn',
10  paint: {
11    'fill-color': '#2ca02c',
12    'fill-opacity': 0.5
13  }
14});

1map.addSource('calfire-rxburn', {
2  type: 'vector',
3  url: 'pmtiles://https://s3-west.nrp-nautilus.io/public-fire/calfire-2024/rxburn.pmtiles'
4});
5map.addLayer({
6  id: 'calfire-rxburn-fill',
7  type: 'fill',
8  source: 'calfire-rxburn',
9  'source-layer': 'rxburn',
10  paint: {
11    'fill-color': '#2ca02c',
12    'fill-opacity': 0.5
13  }
14});

1map.addSource('usgs-fires', {
2  type: 'vector',
3  url: 'pmtiles://https://s3-west.nrp-nautilus.io/public-fire/usgs-fires-2021/combined.pmtiles'
4});
5map.addLayer({
6  id: 'usgs-fires-fill',
7  type: 'fill',
8  source: 'usgs-fires',
9  'source-layer': 'combined',
10  paint: {
11    'fill-color': '#ff7f0e',
12    'fill-opacity': 0.4
13  }
14});

1map.addSource('usgs-fires', {
2  type: 'vector',
3  url: 'pmtiles://https://s3-west.nrp-nautilus.io/public-fire/usgs-fires-2021/combined.pmtiles'
4});
5map.addLayer({
6  id: 'usgs-fires-fill',
7  type: 'fill',
8  source: 'usgs-fires',
9  'source-layer': 'combined',
10  paint: {
11    'fill-color': '#ff7f0e',
12    'fill-opacity': 0.4
13  }
14});

Wildfire Boundary Polygons from USGS and CalFire in cloud native formats

Wildfire Boundary Polygons from USGS and CalFire in cloud native formats

Fire Datasets

1. CAL FIRE Wildfire Perimeters (calfire-2024/firep)

DuckDB Example

MapLibre GL JS Example

Schema

2. CAL FIRE Prescribed Burns (calfire-2024/rxburn)

DuckDB Example

MapLibre GL JS Example

Schema

3. USGS Wildland Fire Combined Dataset (usgs-fires-2021/combined)

DuckDB Example

H3 Hex Example (burn area by hex cell)

MapLibre GL JS Example

Schema

Citation

Fire Datasets

1. CAL FIRE Wildfire Perimeters (calfire-2024/firep)

DuckDB Example

MapLibre GL JS Example

Schema

2. CAL FIRE Prescribed Burns (calfire-2024/rxburn)

DuckDB Example

MapLibre GL JS Example

Schema

3. USGS Wildland Fire Combined Dataset (usgs-fires-2021/combined)

DuckDB Example

H3 Hex Example (burn area by hex cell)

MapLibre GL JS Example

Schema

Citation

1. CAL FIRE Wildfire Perimeters (`calfire-2024/firep`)

2. CAL FIRE Prescribed Burns (`calfire-2024/rxburn`)

3. USGS Wildland Fire Combined Dataset (`usgs-fires-2021/combined`)

1. CAL FIRE Wildfire Perimeters (`calfire-2024/firep`)

2. CAL FIRE Prescribed Burns (`calfire-2024/rxburn`)

3. USGS Wildland Fire Combined Dataset (`usgs-fires-2021/combined`)