Started on Aug 6, 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
- 15 miles northwest of Gillitte, WY
- Cause
- Human
- People working on it
- 19 people
- Complexity
- Type 4 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.
- What's burning
- Short Grass (1 foot)
- How it's behaving
- Minimal
- 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.
Burning through private lands in Campbell County, the Montgomery Draw Fire near Gillitte, Wyoming, has achieved full containment after a four-day campaign. Having started on August 6, 2026, the human-caused blaze consumed 536 acres of short grass averaging one foot in height. Across its progression, the fire maintained an approximate average daily growth of 134 acres.
Current fire behavior is reported as minimal, allowing a 19-person crew operating under a Type 4 Incident management and Type 4 IC to secure the perimeter and reach 100 percent containment. Suppression efforts for the incident accrued a total cost of $20,000.
This incident unfolds during the region's typical fire season, which spans from June to October. On a broader scale, the fire contributes to a national total of 2,761,076 hectares burned across the country so far in 2026, marking a figure that sits 50 percent below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire burned in Wyoming for 19 days. In total it burned about 536 acres — around 2.2 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.
We'll email you if it grows, if it gets more contained, or if it goes out.
At most one alert every 6 hours, and only when something changes.
No account. One-click unsubscribe. · Privacy
Community reports
Reports from people near the fire · unverified
Be the first to report what is happening →
Not official emergency information. In an emergency, contact fire services/authorities.
More fires in Wyoming
- Bare FireEnded
- Cow Camp FireEnded
- Moonshine FireActive
- Crooked Creek FireEnded
- Sr - Buffalo FireEnded
- Rocky Ridge FireEnded