Started on Sep 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
- 4 miles south of McLain, MS
- Cause
- Natural
- People working on it
- 7 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
- USFS · 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 Southern Rough fuel in Greene County, Mississippi, the Merit Creek Fire has reached full containment after scorching 828 acres of federal land overseen by the USFS four miles south of McLain. The Type 4 incident was sparked by natural causes and managed by a Type 4 IC with a small team of seven personnel, accumulating total costs of $65,000. Over its two-day burn, the fire advanced at an approximate average daily growth of 414 acres per day, while satellites registered three heat detections in the 48-hour window, illustrating the recent footprint of the spread.
Fire behavior on the scene has subsided to minimal and creeping activity as crews successfully closed out the operation at 100 percent containment. This event unfolds during the region's typical fire season, which runs from June to October. Nationally, the broader wildfire context shows 3,273,976 hectares burned so far in 2026, marking a figure that is 40 percent below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire burned in Mississippi for 4 days. In total it burned about 828 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 3,368,453 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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