Started on Aug 23, 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
- 1 miles north of Fort Yates, ND
- Cause
- Human
- People working on it
- 2 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
- Minimal
- 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 across Sioux County, North Dakota, the 350-acre Hwy 1806 Fire is now fully contained after eleven days of activity, averaging approximately 32 acres of daily growth. The human-caused blaze, which ignited on August 23, 2026, consumed tall grass standing 2.5 feet high on federal land situated one mile north of Fort Yates. Fire behavior has diminished to minimal levels under the direction of a Type 4 Incident Command, with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) leading containment efforts.
Operations on the ground were managed by a lean team of two personnel, accumulating a total cost of $35,000 to bring the Type 4 incident to a successful close. This local event unfolds within the backdrop of the region's typical fire season, which spans from June to October. On a broader scale, the national landscape has seen 3,172,718 hectares burn so far in 2026, tracking 42% below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire has been burning in North Dakota for 23 days. So far it has affected roughly 350 acres — about 1.4 km². The perimeter is 100% contained.
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 3,226,886 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.