Started on Aug 8, 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
Active fires nearby2 · 100 km
Quick facts
- Location
- 18 miles north of DAYTON, WA
- Cause
- Human
- People working on it
- 26 people
- Complexity
- Type 3 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
- Extreme, Short-range SpottingFlanking — Grows along the sides, not head-on.
- 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.
Spreading at an average rate of 4,262 acres per day over just two days of burning, the human-caused Little Goose Fire has rapidly expanded across 8,524 acres of private land in Columbia County, Washington, located 18 miles north of Dayton. Driven by extreme fire behavior, short-range spotting, and flanking in 2.5-foot tall grass, the zero-percent contained blaze continues to actively threaten the area.
A Type 3 Incident management team consisting of 26 personnel is currently assigned to the incident, with response costs reaching $500,000. Across the country, the broader fire landscape shows 2,761,076 hectares burned so far in 2026, marking a total that is 50 percent below the two-decade average for a typical fire season that spans from June to October.
In context
This wildfire burned in Washington for 2 days. In total it burned about 8,524 acres — around 34 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 3,266,178 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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