Little Goose Fire, Dayton, Washington

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

Location18 miles north of Dayton, WA

CauseHuman

What's burningTall Grass (2.5 feet)

How it's behavingExtreme, Short-range SpottingFlanking — Grows along the sides, not head-on.

ComplexityType 3 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.

JurisdictionPrivate land

Cost so far$500,000

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

Burning across 8,524 acres of private land in Columbia County, Washington, the human-caused Little Goose Fire near Dayton has officially ended after an extensive 82-day run. The incident, which started on August 8, 2026, and was managed as a Type 3 Incident by 26 personnel, progressed at an approximate average daily growth rate of 104 acres per day. During its active phase, the fire burned through tall grass standing 2.5 feet high, exhibiting extreme behavior characterized by short-range spotting and flanking before operations ultimately concluded at zero percent containment.

Over the course of the incident, suppression efforts accumulated a total cost of about $500,000. The broader seasonal context for 2026 indicates that 3,459,197 hectares have burned nationally so far, placing the total burned area 37% below the two-decade average for the country, even as local incidents like this one ran through the region's typical fire season, which spans from June to October.