Big Buffalo Fire (MT)
True color
Fire (SWIR)
Infrared / SWIR (right): sees through smoke.
🟢 green = vegetation
🟤 red/brown = burned
🟠 orange = active fire
Imagery: Sentinel-2 (Copernicus). Drag to compare smoke vs. infrared.
Heat detections: NASA FIRMS (last 48h).
Quick facts
- Location
- 8 Miles N from Circle, MT
- Personnel
- 18
- Complexity
- Type 4 Incident
- Fuel
- Short Grass (1 foot)
- Behavior
- Active, Spotting
- Jurisdiction
- Private land
Burning across private land in McCone County, the Big Buffalo Fire sits eight miles north of Circle, Montana, where satellites have picked up four heat detections in the past 48 hours. Fueling the active fire behavior and spotting is short grass standing one foot tall. The incident, managed as a Type 4 Incident with a Type 4 IC, has grown to 1,500 acres since it started on August 6, 2026, and currently remains zero percent contained.
A response force of 18 personnel is assigned to the active blaze, with operations costs having reached $100,000. The wider region typically experiences its fire season from June to October. Nationally, 2,628,213 hectares have burned so far in 2026, marking a figure 52 percent below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire has been burning in Montana for 1 day. So far it has affected roughly 1,500 acres — about 6.1 km². Crews report no containment yet, so the fire can still spread.
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 2,628,213 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 52% below the two-decade average. Data from Copernicus GWIS.
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Community reports
Reports from people near the fire · unverified
Not official emergency information. In an emergency, contact fire services/authorities.
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