Started on Aug 22, 2026.
United States todayLive
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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
Active fires nearby3 · 100 km
Quick facts
- Location
- 18 miles southwest of Baker City, OR
- Cause
- Natural
- People working on it
- 81 people
- Complexity
- Type 2 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.
- What's burning
- Timber (Litter and Understory)
- How it's behaving
- MinimalCrowning — Climbs into the treetops and jumps crown to crown. It can't be attacked from the ground.Torching — Whole trees flaring up like torches.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.
- Jurisdiction
- USFS · 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 through timber with litter and understory, the active North Pole Fire has expanded to 310 acres since starting on August 22, 2026, averaging approximately 103 acres per day over its three days of burning in Baker County, Oregon. Located 18 miles southwest of Baker City, the federal incident on USFS land displays extreme fire behavior, including crowning, torching, and spotting. Satellites are picking up 43 heat detections in the 48-hour window, illustrating the spread of the front.
With zero containment reported, the Type 2 incident is managed by a Type 3 Team coordinating 81 personnel, while operations have accumulated a cost of 20,000 USD. The wider context of the country shows 3,005,648 hectares burned so far in 2026, tracking 45% below the two-decade average during a typical fire season that spans from June to October.
In context
This wildfire burned in Oregon for 19 days. In total it burned about 310 acres — around 1.3 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 3,347,504 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 39% 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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