Mm81 Hwy55 Fire, Idaho City, Idaho

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

Location6 miles west of Garden Valley, ID

CauseHuman

What's burningShort Grass (1 foot)

How it's behavingModerate, Uphill RunsBacking — Moves against the wind or downhill, which makes it slower.

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

JurisdictionBLM · Federal land

Cost so far$600,000

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

Summary written on Aug 14, while the fire was still active. It has since ended — the figures above are current.

Burning across federal land under the management of the Bureau of Land Management, the active Mm81 Hwy55 Fire is located six miles west of Garden Valley in Boise County, Idaho. Having already consumed 330 acres since its start on August 12, 2026, the human-caused fire has averaged a daily growth of approximately 165 acres over its two days of burning, with satellites picking up four heat detections in the past 48 hours to map its nearby spread.

Fire behavior is currently characterized as moderate with backing and uphill runs through one-foot short grass fuel. Zero containment has been achieved so far as 123 personnel respond to the incident, operating under a Type 3 Incident Commander as a Type 4 incident with suppression costs reaching $600,000.

This incident unfolds during the region's typical fire season, which runs from June to October. Nationally, the broader context shows that 2,902,022 hectares have burned so far in 2026, tracking 47% below the two-decade average.