Started on Aug 14, 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
- 12 miles southeast of Savannah, GA
- Cause
- Natural
- 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
- Southern Rough
- How it's behaving
- MinimalCreeping — Moves slowly, hugging the ground.
- Jurisdiction
- USFWS · 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 for 31 days with an average daily growth of approximately 27 acres per day, the Main Trail Fire has scorched 841 acres in Chatham County, Georgia, located 12 miles southeast of Savannah. Currently 100 percent contained and classified as a Type 4 Incident managed by a Type 4 IC, the natural-cause fire is exhibiting minimal, creeping behavior in southern rough fuel on federal land under the jurisdiction of the USFWS.
Operations to secure the perimeter involve two personnel, accumulating a total cost of $42,000. While this incident concludes its active spread, a broader look at the region shows that the typical fire season runs from June to October. Across the country, 3,216,925 hectares have burned so far in 2026, marking a figure that is 41 percent below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire burned in Georgia for 45 days. In total it burned about 841 acres — around 3.4 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 3,318,049 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 39% 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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