Started on Jul 18, 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
- 40 miles northeast of SUSANVILLE, CA
- People working on it
- 41 people
- Complexity
- Type 1 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
- Minimal, Uphill RunsSmoldering — 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 through Lassen County, California, near Ravendale and 40 miles northeast of Susanville, the Biscar Fire has completed a 22-day campaign that consumed 69,352 acres of federal land managed by the BLM. Across its trajectory, the incident expanded at an approximate average daily growth of 3,152 acres, fueled primarily by two-foot brush. Currently, the fire is fully contained at 100 percent, with crews reporting minimal, smoldering, and uphill runs as current fire behavior.
Operations for this Type 1 Incident involved 41 personnel operating under Type 4 IC management, accumulating a total suppression cost of $10,000,000. The fire began on July 18, 2026, and despite its substantial size, it reached full containment while burning within the region's typical fire season, which runs from June to October.
Nationwide, the Biscar Fire contributes to a broader landscape where 2,702,782 hectares have burned so far in 2026, tracking 51% below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire burned in California for 22 days. In total it burned about 69,352 acres — around 281 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 3,394,363 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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