Started on Aug 9, 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
- 2 miles northwest of Winterhaven, CA
- Cause
- Human
- People working on it
- 7 people
- Complexity
- Type 4 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.
- What's burning
- Brush (2 feet)
- How it's behaving
- MinimalSmoldering — Burning without flame, in the ground or in roots. Can flare up days later.
- Jurisdiction
- BIA · 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 near Winterhaven, California, the active Foster Fire has consumed 252 acres since it was sparked by human activity on August 9, 2026. Over six days of burning, the blaze has maintained an approximate average daily growth of 42 acres per day, predominantly creeping through two-foot brush in Imperial County near Foster Road north of Indian Rock Road. Fire behavior is currently characterized as minimal and smoldering.
Federal land managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs is impacted by the incident, which has reached 80 percent containment with a reported suppression cost of $86,000. A total of seven personnel operating under a Type 4 Incident management structure are assigned to the scene. The wider context shows that 2,909,844 hectares have burned nationally so far in 2026, tracking 47 percent below the two-decade average during a typical fire season that spans from June to October.
In context
This wildfire burned in California for 8 days. In total it burned about 252 acres — around 1.0 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 3,288,995 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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Not official emergency information. In an emergency, contact fire services/authorities.
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