That’s not from a news story. I give up on reporters. Most of’em don’t know up from down or a shotgun from a rifle. That’s from official daily reports put out by the National Interagency Fire Center.
To be honest, though, when the fires are crazy, the reports don’t get filed in time or all that accurate...they are busy!
First, each fire files a 209, which are notoriously late when there’s a lot of action, and a lot of guestimates. Then the data is sent by region to NICC, which compiles it and makes their reports. Some regions only like to report new acres from what is called Initial Attack, others report on the growth of fires from established fires as well, and other areas act like they don’t want to admit that they have fire acres burned and seemingly put a lot of their acreage into the grand totals and not the daily burns.
I’ve been watching these reports since 1999, when I first discovered them.
It drives me crazy....