Mm115 Hwy 20 Fire, Mountain Home, Idaho

True view Fire view

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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

Location12 miles northeast of Mountain Home, ID

CauseHuman

What's burningShort Grass (1 foot)

How it's behavingMinimalCreeping — Moves slowly, hugging the ground.Isolated Torching — Single scattered trees flaring up whole, like torches.

ComplexityType 4 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.

JurisdictionPrivate land

Cost so far$4.5 million

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

Summary written on Aug 13, while the fire was still active. It has since ended — the figures above are current.

Burning across private land in Elmore County, Idaho, the active Mm115 Hwy 20 Fire located 12 miles northeast of Mountain Home has consumed 5,139 acres since it started on August 7, 2026. Over its six days of burning, the incident has maintained an average daily growth of approximately 857 acres per day. Fire activity has now shifted to minimal, creeping, and isolated torching through one-foot short grass fuels. A total of 252 personnel are assigned to the Type 3 Incident, operating under a Type 3 IC management structure to achieve the current 90 percent containment, with suppression costs reaching $4,500,000.

The human-caused fire is unfolding against the backdrop of the region's typical fire season, which runs from June to October. On a national scale, the broader context shows that 2,866,952 hectares have burned across the country so far in 2026, marking a figure that sits 48 percent below the two-decade average.