Started on Aug 5, 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
- 6 miles northwest of LEBEC, CA
- Cause
- Human
- People working on it
- 55 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
- MinimalBacking — Moves against the wind or downhill, which makes it slower.Creeping — Moves slowly, hugging the ground.
- 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.
Burning across 902 acres of private land in Kern County, California, the human-caused Buzzard Fire is now fully contained after an eight-day run that averaged approximately 113 acres per day. Located six miles northwest of Lebec near the city of Lebec, the incident saw crews navigate tall grass measuring two and a half feet.
Fire behavior on the incident reduced to minimal, backing, and creeping activity as suppression efforts took hold. Managing the response required 55 personnel operating under a Type 4 Incident command structure.
Across the country, the wider wildfire landscape reveals that 2,893,377 hectares have burned so far in 2026, marking a figure 47% below the two-decade average. This activity occurs within the region's typical fire season, which runs from June to October.
In context
This wildfire burned in California for 22 days. In total it burned about 902 acres — around 3.7 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 3,258,477 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 41% below the two-decade average. Data from Copernicus GWIS.
We'll email you if it grows, if it gets more contained, or if it goes out.
At most one alert every 6 hours, and only when something changes.
No account. One-click unsubscribe. · Privacy
Community reports
Reports from people near the fire · unverified
Be the first to report what is happening →
Not official emergency information. In an emergency, contact fire services/authorities.
More fires in California
- Rock FireEnded
- Lucas FireActive
- Foster FireEnded
- Ridge FireEnded
- Plaskett FireActive
- Mp18 FireContained