Started on Sep 3, 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
- 25 miles southeast of Terry, MT
- Complex
- Rattlesnake Complex
- Cause
- Natural
- People working on it
- 9 people
- Complexity
- Type 3 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.
- What's burning
- Timber (Grass and Understory)
- How it's behaving
- Moderate, Single Tree Torching
- Jurisdiction
- BLM · Federal 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.
Burning through timber with grass and understory in Prairie County, the Ayers Pond Fire near Terry, Montana, has reached full containment after four days of activity. Sparked by a natural cause on September 3, 2026, the incident advanced at an approximate daily growth rate of 148 acres per day, ultimately reaching 593 acres. Fire behavior was characterized as moderate with single tree torching.
Suppression efforts for the Type 3 Incident involved nine personnel under the management of a Type 3 Team, with operations overseen by the Bureau of Land Management on federal land. Total costs to contain the fire reached $13,000.
This event unfolds during the region's typical fire season, which runs from June to October. Across the country, 3,185,593 hectares have burned so far in 2026, marking a figure that sits 42% below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire burned in Montana for 19 days. In total it burned about 593 acres — around 2.4 km².
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 3,400,542 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 38% below the two-decade average. Data from Copernicus GWIS.
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Community reports
Reports from people near the fire · unverified
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Not official emergency information. In an emergency, contact fire services/authorities.
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