Started on Aug 21, 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
- 9 miles south of Elgin, OK
- Cause
- Human
- People working on it
- 8 people
- Complexity
- Type 4 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.
- What's burning
- Tall Grass (2.5 feet)
- How it's behaving
- MinimalRunning — Runs along the ground much faster than a person walks.Flanking — Grows along the sides, not head-on.
- Jurisdiction
- Private 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.
Spanning 889 acres over eight days of burning, the active Bison Fire near Foraker and Elgin, Oklahoma, in Osage County continues to demand local resources as it grows at an approximate daily rate of 111 acres. Driven by tall grass standing 2.5 feet high, the fire behavior currently includes minimal activity alongside running and flanking fronts.
Eighty-five percent contained by a dedicated crew of eight personnel operating under a Type 4 Incident management structure and Type 4 Incident Commander, the human-caused blaze is burning entirely on private land. Suppression efforts to date have accumulated a cost of $35,000.
This incident unfolds during the region's typical fire season, which runs from June to October. On a national scale, the broader context shows that 3,133,897 hectares have burned across the country so far in 2026, marking a figure that sits 43 percent below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire burned in Oklahoma for 11 days. In total it burned about 889 acres — around 3.6 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 3,323,241 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 39% 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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