Complex Fire, Oregon - Earth.com Complex Fire, Oregon

The fire complex known as the B&B Fire to firefighters is composed of the Booth (south) and Bear Butte (north) Fires in Oregon. As of Wednesday night (August 27, 2003), the fire was affecting more than 40,815 acres and was 30 percent contained. This image shows the actively burning areas of the fires detected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite marked with red. The image was acquired on August 27, 2003. The gray patch at upper left is the city of Portland.

Oregon was inhabited by many indigenous tribes before Western traders, explorers, and settlers arrived. An autonomous government was formed in the Oregon Country in 1843 before the Oregon Territory was created in 1848. Oregon became the 33rd state on February 14, 1859. Today, at 98,000 square miles (250,000 km2), Oregon is the ninth largest and, with a population of 4 million, 27th most populous U.S. state. The capital, Salem, is the second most populous city in Oregon, with 169,798 residents. Portland, with 647,805, ranks as the 26th among U.S. cities. The Portland metropolitan area, which also includes the city of Vancouver, Washington, to the north, ranks the 25th largest metro area in the nation, with a population of 2,453,168.

Credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

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