Dry River Fire, Sonora, Texas — Map & Containment

Dry River Fire, Sonora, Texas — Sentinel-2 true color

Dry River Fire, Sonora, Texas — 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

Key facts

Source: NIFC

Location5 miles southeast of Sonora, TX

CauseHuman

What's burningTall Grass (2.5 feet)

How it's behavingMinimalCreeping — Moves slowly, hugging the ground.Smoldering — Burning without flame, in the ground or in roots. Can flare up days later.

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

JurisdictionSFS · Private 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.

The story so far

The Dry River Fire burning in Sutton County, Texas, five miles southeast of Sonora, has officially ended after a forty-day run that saw the blaze consume an estimated 8,939 acres of private land primarily fueled by tall grass standing 2.5 feet high. Sparked by human activity on September 15, 2026, the incident peaked with an average daily growth of approximately 223 acres per day before firefighters successfully brought the blaze to 95 percent containment under the management of the SFS agency.

During its active phase, operations involved 68 personnel handling the Type 4 incident while fire behavior was characterized by minimal, creeping, and smoldering conditions. The typical fire season for this region runs from June to October, placing the Dry River Fire squarely within the expected seasonal timeframe for local wildfire activity.

Nationwide, the broader context of the 2026 fire season shows that 3,450,653 hectares have burned so far, a figure tracking 37 percent below the two-decade average for the country.