Started on Sep 12, 2026.
United States todayLive
Green: vegetationBrown: already burnedOrange: fire right nowSentinel-2 · Copernicus
Red dots: heat detected by satellite in the last 48h. NASA FIRMS
Quick facts
- Location
- 7 miles south of Tinnie, NM
- Cause
- Natural
- People working on it
- 18 people
- Complexity
- Type 4 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.
- What's burning
- Tall Grass (2.5 feet)
- 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 across private lands through tall grass averaging 2.5 feet in height, the active Monument Fire has scorched 572 acres in Lincoln County, New Mexico, located seven miles south of Tinnie and near Pichacho. Having burned for three days since its natural start on September 12, 2026, the incident has expanded at an approximate average daily growth rate of 191 acres per day. Despite this trajectory, fire behavior is currently minimal, and containment has reached 90 percent.
A modest contingent of 18 personnel is assigned to the Type 4 Incident, operating under a Type 4 Incident Commander with suppression costs totaling $50,000.
This event unfolds within a regional fire season that typically runs from June to October. Nationally, the broader context reveals that 3,226,886 hectares have burned across the country so far in 2026, tracking 41 percent below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire burned in New Mexico for 3 days. In total it burned about 572 acres — around 2.3 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 3,366,046 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 39% below the two-decade average. Data from Copernicus GWIS.
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Community reports
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