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P-L Gulch Fire (Colorado)

Ended · 100% contained · 1,580 acres · started 2026-07-13 · updated 2026-07-28

P-L Gulch Fire (Colorado) — Sentinel-2 true color P-L Gulch Fire (Colorado) — Sentinel-2 SWIR (fuego) True color Fire (SWIR)
True color (left): as the eye sees it.
Infrared / SWIR (right): sees through smoke.

🟢 green = vegetation
🟤 red/brown = burned
🟠 orange = active fire

Imagery: Sentinel-2 (Copernicus). Drag to compare smoke vs. infrared.

Heat detections: NASA FIRMS (last 48h).

Quick facts

Location
19 Miles SW from Meeker, CO
Cause
Human
Personnel
3
Complexity
Type 4 Incident
Fuel
Brush (2 feet)
Behavior
Minimal, Smoldering
Jurisdiction
BLM · Federal land

Burning for 15 days with an average daily growth of approximately 105 acres, the 1,580-acre P-L Gulch Fire 19 miles southwest of Meeker, Colorado, has now reached 100 percent containment. The human-caused blaze on federal land within Rio Blanco County was managed by a Type 4 Incident Command, with personnel scaling back to just three individuals as fire behavior was reduced to minimal, smoldering activity in two-foot brush.

Suppression efforts for the Bureau of Land Management incident ultimately totaled $4,306,000 in costs.

In context

This wildfire burned in Colorado for 26 days. In total it burned about 1,580 acres — around 6.4 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 3,133,897 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 43% below the two-decade average. Data from Copernicus GWIS.

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