Started on Aug 2, 2026. 70% of the perimeter still to contain.
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
- 15 miles east of Hamilton, MT
- Cause
- Natural
- People working on it
- 23 people
- Complexity
- Type 3 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.
- What's burning
- Timber (Litter and Understory)
- How it's behaving
- Minimal, Single Tree TorchingBacking — Moves against the wind or downhill, which makes it slower.
- Jurisdiction
- USFS · 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 for 35 days across 2,126 acres of timber litter and understory in Ravalli County, Montana, the active Black Bear Fire is holding at 30 percent containment with 23 personnel assigned under a Type 3 Incident management team. Located 15 miles east of Hamilton, the federally managed USFS wildfire has maintained an average daily growth of approximately 61 acres per day since its natural start on August 2, 2026, accumulating $1,438,403 in costs.
Current fire behavior is reported as minimal, characterized by single tree torching and backing. Despite these conditions, the broader regional context shows that the typical fire season runs from June to October. Across the country, 3,178,795 hectares have burned so far in 2026, tracking 42 percent below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire has been burning in Montana for 44 days. So far it has affected roughly 2,126 acres — about 8.6 km². Crews have contained 30% of the perimeter, but most of the fire line is still open.
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 3,226,886 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 41% below the two-decade average. Data from Copernicus GWIS.
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