Started on Aug 2, 2026. 20% 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
- MinimalCreeping — Moves slowly, hugging the ground.Smoldering — Burning without flame, in the ground or in roots. Can flare up days later.Backing — 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 across Ravalli County with minimal, creeping, smoldering, and backing fire behavior through timber, litter, and understory, the active Black Bear Fire near Hamilton, Montana, has now been on the landscape for 46 days since its natural ignition on August 2, 2026. Managed by a Type 4 Incident Commander under a Type 3 Incident complexity, the USFS operation involves 23 personnel working on federal land, bringing containment up to 80 percent on a footprint that has expanded at an approximate average daily growth of 46 acres per day.
The suppression effort for this federal incident has reached a cost of $1,438,403. Across the broader national landscape where fires typically peak between June and October, 2026 has seen 3,243,965 hectares burn so far, placing the nationwide total 41 percent below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire has been burning in Montana for 53 days. So far it has affected roughly 2,126 acres — about 8.6 km². About 80% of the perimeter is contained — over half is secured, though hotspots remain.
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 3,273,976 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 40% 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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