Hancock - Texas Flat Road Fire (Mississippi)
Started on Aug 21, 2026.
United States todayLive
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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 southeast of Picayune, MS
- People working on it
- 6 people
- Complexity
- Type 5 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.
- What's burning
- Southern Rough
- How it's behaving
- MinimalWhat does each term mean? →
- 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 private land 6 miles southeast of Picayune, Mississippi, in Hancock County, the Hancock - Texas Flat Road Fire has burned 410 acres over six days of activity, averaging an approximate daily growth of 68 acres per day. The incident is currently listed as contained at 100 percent, exhibiting minimal fire behavior in southern rough fuel types. A Type 5 Incident management structure with six personnel and a Type 5 IC oversaw the operations, accumulating a total cost of 81600 USD since the fire started on August 21, 2026.
This fire occurs within the region's typical fire season, which runs from June to October. Nationally, the broader context shows 3,068,903 hectares burned so far in 2026, tracking 44% below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire burned in Mississippi for 19 days. In total it burned about 410 acres — around 1.7 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 3,216,670 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 41% 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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