Started on Jul 31, 2026.
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
- 20 miles east of Idaho Falls, ID
- Cause
- Natural
- People working on it
- 3 people
- Complexity
- Type 2 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
- MinimalCreeping — Moves slowly, hugging the ground.Smoldering — Burning without flame, in the ground or in roots. Can flare up days later.
- 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 across 2,142 acres of federal land in Jefferson County, the Big Rock Fire is now 100 percent contained after a 13-day run that saw it expand at an average rate of approximately 165 acres per day. Located 20 miles east of Idaho Falls, Idaho, the blaze was managed by a Type 5 Incident Commander overseeing three personnel under the direction of the BLM. Fire behavior had quieted down to minimal, creeping, and smoldering activity within two-foot brush fuels before crews successfully locked down the perimeter.
The natural-caused incident accumulated a total cost of $3,530,000 as a Type 2 Incident before reaching full containment. Across the country, the 2026 fire season—which typically runs from June to October—has seen 2,893,377 hectares burned so far, tracking 47 percent below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire burned in Idaho for 14 days. In total it burned about 2,142 acres — around 8.7 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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