Bras Fire, HOT SPRINGS, Montana (2026)

This fire in numbersDay 4

683Hectares1,688Acres4Days burning

Containment35%

Started on Oct 17, 2026. 65% of the perimeter still to contain.

United States todayLive

38Active1,155Hotspots 48h582 kHectares

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Bras Fire (Montana) — Sentinel-2 true color

Bras Fire (Montana) — Sentinel-2 SWIR (fuego)

True view Fire view

⟷

True view (left): as the eye sees it.
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

Active fires nearby1 · 100 km

74KM SWMoose Mountain Fire5,832 acres · 90% contained

Within 100 kmSee on map →

Quick facts

Location: 2 miles east of HOT SPRINGS, MT
Cause: Human
People working on it: 17 people
Complexity: Type 4 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.
What's burning: Short Grass (1 foot)
How it's behaving: MinimalCreeping — Moves slowly, hugging the ground.
Jurisdiction: DNRC · State land

Glossary: what each term means

Minimal

Barely moving. Low, thin smoke.

Smoldering

Burning without flame, in the ground or in roots. Can flare up days later.

Creeping

Moves slowly, hugging the ground.

Moderate

Spreads with low, steady flames.

Active

Spreading evenly and steadily, with visible flame.

Extreme

Fast and unpredictable.

Running

Runs along the ground much faster than a person walks.

Flanking

Grows along the sides, not head-on.

Backing

Moves against the wind or downhill, which makes it slower.

Crowning

Climbs into the treetops and jumps crown to crown. It can't be attacked from the ground.

Short Crown Runs

Climbs into the crowns in bursts and drops back down.

Torching

Whole trees flaring up like torches.

Isolated Torching

Single scattered trees flaring up whole, like torches.

Group Torching

Whole clumps of trees flaring at once.

Spotting

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.

Wind Driven Runs

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 Sanders County, Montana, the human-caused Bras Fire has scorched 1,688 acres since it started on October 17, 2026. Located just two miles east of Hot Springs, the active blaze is currently managed by a Type 4 Incident command team with 17 personnel assigned, accumulating an estimated cost of $100,000.

The fire has maintained an average daily growth of approximately 563 acres per day over its three days of burning. Despite this trajectory, current fire behavior is reported as minimal and creeping through short grass fuels standing about one foot tall on state land overseen by the DNRC.

Containment efforts have reached 35 percent. This incident unfolds during the typical regional fire season, which runs from June to October. On a broader scale, a total of 3,415,301 hectares have burned across the country so far in 2026, marking a figure that sits 38 percent below the two-decade average.

In context

This wildfire has been burning in Montana for 3 days. So far it has affected roughly 1,688 acres — about 6.8 km². Crews have contained 35% 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.