Started on Jul 17, 2026.
United States todayLive
True view
Fire view
Fire view (right): infrared (SWIR), sees through smoke and brings out the heat.
🟢 green = vegetation
🟤 brown = already burned
🟠 orange = fire right now
Drag to compare: normal photo on the left, heat brought out on the right.
Green: vegetationBrown: already burnedOrange: fire right nowSentinel-2 · Copernicus
Red dots: heat detected by satellite in the last 48h. NASA FIRMS
Quick facts
- Location
- 18 miles west of MITCHELL, OR
- Cause
- Natural
- People working on it
- 209 people
- Complexity
- Type 1 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.
- What's burning
- Short Grass (1 foot)
- How it's behaving
- ActiveCrowning — Climbs into the treetops and jumps crown to crown. It can't be attacked from the ground.Group Torching — Whole clumps of trees flaring at once.Spotting — Wind carries embers through the air and starts new fires ahead of the front: that is how a fire jumps a road or a firebreak.
- Jurisdiction
- Private land
Glossary: what each term means
Barely moving. Low, thin smoke.
Burning without flame, in the ground or in roots. Can flare up days later.
Moves slowly, hugging the ground.
Spreads with low, steady flames.
Spreading evenly and steadily, with visible flame.
Fast and unpredictable.
Runs along the ground much faster than a person walks.
Grows along the sides, not head-on.
Moves against the wind or downhill, which makes it slower.
Climbs into the treetops and jumps crown to crown. It can't be attacked from the ground.
Climbs into the crowns in bursts and drops back down.
Whole trees flaring up like torches.
Single scattered trees flaring up whole, like torches.
Whole clumps of trees flaring at once.
Wind carries embers through the air and starts new fires ahead of the front: that is how a fire jumps a road or a firebreak.
The wind pushes it in long runs in one direction.
The ones marked ● are the behaviors that make a fire harder to stop. They are not a warning or an instruction: they are the description written by the agency in charge. For decisions, always follow your emergency services.
Spanning 21,432 acres of private land in Jefferson County, the Box Springs Fire near Prineville, Oregon, burned for 24 days with an average daily growth of approximately 893 acres per day. Active fire behavior was characterized by crowning, group torching, and spotting within short grass fuels standing one foot tall. Satellites detected 32 heat signatures over a 48-hour period in the vicinity of the 18 miles west of Mitchell location.
Operations to suppress the blaze, which started on July 17, 2026, from a natural cause, involved 209 personnel operating under a Complex Incident Management Team as a Type 1 Incident. These combined efforts successfully brought the fire to 100 percent containment, accumulating a total cost of $1,122,770.
This incident unfolds during a regional fire season that typically spans from June to October. Nationally, the broader context reveals that 2,761,076 hectares have burned so far in 2026, marking a total that is 50 percent below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire has been burning in Oregon for 61 days. So far it has affected roughly 21,432 acres — about 87 km². The perimeter is 100% contained.
In the Northern Hemisphere, wildfire activity usually peaks during the warm, dry months — roughly May through October.
The bigger picture in United States
Across United States, roughly 3,226,886 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 41% below the two-decade average. Data from Copernicus GWIS.
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