Started on Sep 4, 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
- 2 miles east of Evergreen Community, SD
- Cause
- Natural
- People working on it
- 30 people
- Complexity
- Type 3 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
- BIA · 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 for six days at an approximate average daily growth of 1,003 acres, the active Needles Fire has now charred 6,018 acres of federal land in Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota. Located two miles east of the Evergreen Community near Porcupine, the blaze is managed by a Type 3 Incident Command team with 30 personnel assigned under the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Despite its six-day progression through 2.5-foot tall grass, current fire behavior is reported as minimal, allowing crews to achieve 90 percent containment.
Sparked by natural causes on September 4, 2026, the incident has accumulated a suppression cost of $500,000. The emergency unfolds during the region's typical fire season, which spans from June to October. On a broader national scale, the broader context shows that 3,201,049 hectares have burned across the country so far in 2026, marking a figure that is 42 percent below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire burned in South Dakota for 13 days. In total it burned about 6,018 acres — around 24 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 3,404,331 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 38% 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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Not official emergency information. In an emergency, contact fire services/authorities.
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