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
Key facts
Source: NIFCGlossary: 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.
The story so far
Following an 83-day campaign that consumed 3,176 acres of private timber litter and understory near Spokane, Washington, the Old Trails Fire has officially ended. Burning in a region where the typical fire season runs from June to October, the human-caused blaze grew at an average rate of about 38 acres per day after starting on August 1, 2026.
Fire suppression efforts ultimately involved 14 personnel managing a Type 1 Incident, bringing total suppression costs to about $18 million, specifically $17,975,811 USD. By the time containment reached 100 percent and activity subsided to minimal, smoldering, and creeping behavior, the fire had run its course.
Nationwide, the broader wildfire context for 2026 shows 3,442,406 hectares burned so far, tracking 37 percent below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire burned in Washington for 32 days. In total it burned about 3,176 acres — around 13 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 3,478,083 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 37% below the two-decade average. Data from Copernicus GWIS.
Alerts near Spokane
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