Brown Ditch Fire, Hackberry, Louisiana

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

Key facts

Source: NIFC

Location10 miles south of Hackberry, LA

CauseHuman

What's burningShort Grass (1 foot)

How it's behavingMinimalTorching — Whole trees flaring up like torches.Backing — Moves against the wind or downhill, which makes it slower.

ComplexityType 4 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.

JurisdictionUSFWS · Federal land

Cost so far$10,000

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.

The story so far

Summary written on Jul 24, while the fire was still active. It has since ended — the figures above are current.

Burning for just two days, the active Brown Ditch Fire has expanded to 1,300 acres with an approximate average daily growth of 650 acres per day in Cameron County, Louisiana. Located 10 miles south of Hackberry, the human-caused fire is currently exhibiting minimal, torching, and backing fire behavior through short grass fuels on federal land managed by the USFWS.

Satellites have detected 28 heat signatures clustered nearby over the past 48 hours, illustrating the extent of the spread. Suppression efforts by 11 personnel under a Type 4 Incident management team have achieved 50 percent containment of the blaze, with operations totaling $10,000 in costs.