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
Summary written on Aug 14, while the fire was still active. It has since ended — the figures above are current.
Burning across private land in Brunswick County, the Quarry Road Fire has maintained a persistent presence three miles southwest of Shallotte, North Carolina, scorching 283 acres over an extensive 35-day burning period with an average daily growth of approximately eight acres per day. Exhibiting minimal and crowning fire behavior in southern rough fuels, the incident has been managed by a Type 5 Incident Commander overseeing a minimal personnel of just one individual. The total cost to manage this Type 5 incident has reached $59,400.
By reaching 100 percent containment, the fire's progression has been successfully halted. This localized incident unfolds within a broader national landscape that has seen 2,902,022 hectares burned so far in 2026, a figure tracking 47 percent below the two-decade average for the country. The regional fire season typically spans from June to October, encompassing the timeframe during which this North Carolina blaze originated on July 10, 2026.
In context
This wildfire burned in North Carolina for 40 days. In total it burned about 283 acres — around 1.1 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 3,513,072 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 36% below the two-decade average. Data from Copernicus GWIS.
Alerts near Shallotte
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