Started on Aug 12, 2026.
United States todayLiveYesterday's image: fire shows in orange and red. NASA MODIS
Red dots: heat detected by satellite in the last 48h. NASA FIRMS
Active fires nearby2 · 100 km
Quick facts
- Location
- 2 miles east of Evergreen, SD
- Cause
- Natural
- People working on it
- 10 people
- Complexity
- Type 4 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.
- What's burning
- Timber (Grass and Understory)
- How it's behaving
- Minimal
- Jurisdiction
- BIA · 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 for three days near Porcupine, South Dakota, the active Rancher Fire has advanced across 698 acres at an average daily growth of approximately 233 acres per day. Located two miles east of Evergreen in Oglala Lakota County on federal land, the incident is managed by a Type 4 Incident Commander with 10 personnel deployed under the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Despite the active status, current fire behavior is minimal within the timber, grass, and understory fuels.
Containment on the natural-cause fire has reached 70 percent, with suppression operations accumulating a total cost of $60,000. The local fire season typically spans from June to October. Nationally, this event occurs within a broader context where 2,909,844 hectares have burned across the country so far in 2026, marking a figure that sits 47 percent below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire burned in South Dakota for 5 days. In total it burned about 698 acres — around 2.8 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 3,216,670 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 41% below the two-decade average. Data from Copernicus GWIS.
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Community reports
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