Started on Jul 17, 2026.
United States todayLive
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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
- 16 miles south of SOUTH BAY, FL
- Cause
- Natural
- People working on it
- 1 people
- Complexity
- Type 5 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.
- What's burning
- Brush (2 feet)
- How it's behaving
- MinimalBacking — Moves against the wind or downhill, which makes it slower.Smoldering — Burning without flame, in the ground or in roots. Can flare up days later.
- Jurisdiction
- DVF · State 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 across the Rotenberger Wildlife Management Area 16 miles south of South Bay, Florida, the 19,700-acre BERGER (50) Fire has been brought under 100 percent containment after an 11-day campaign marked by an average daily growth of approximately 1,791 acres. Fueled by two-foot brush and managed under a Type 5 Incident command by DVF, the natural-cause fire exhibited minimal, backing, and smoldering behavior on state-owned land within Palm Beach County.
A single personnel member oversaw the final containment efforts for this Type 5 incident, successfully securing the perimeter of the Palm Beach County wildfire.
In context
This wildfire burned in Florida for 23 days. In total it burned about 19,700 acres — around 80 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 3,243,965 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 41% 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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