Started on Jul 13, 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
- 19 miles southwest of Meeker, CO
- Cause
- Human
- People working on it
- 3 people
- Complexity
- Type 4 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.
- What's burning
- Brush (2 feet)
- How it's behaving
- MinimalSmoldering — Burning without flame, in the ground or in roots. Can flare up days later.
- Jurisdiction
- BLM · 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 across federal brush lands characterized by two-foot fuels, the P-L Gulch Fire near Meeker, Colorado, has maintained a slow trajectory over an 85-day span, averaging approximately 19 acres of growth per day. Ignited by human activity on July 13, 2026, the 1,580-acre incident in Rio Blanco County is now 100 percent contained and exhibits minimal, smoldering fire behavior. Managing the aftermath requires a modest commitment of three personnel under a Type 4 Incident Command structure overseen by the Bureau of Land Management, accumulating a total cost of $4,306,000.
This persistent wildfire unfolds within a broader national landscape where typical fire seasons span from June to October. Across the country, 3,323,241 hectares have burned so far in 2026, a figure that remains 39 percent below the two-decade average for the same period.
In context
This wildfire has been burning in Colorado for 93 days. So far it has affected roughly 1,580 acres — about 6.4 km². The perimeter is 100% contained.
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 3,372,253 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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