Round Prarie Fire, Bastrop, Louisiana

True view Fire view

⟷

True view (left): as the eye sees it.
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

Key facts

Source: NIFC

Location8 miles northwest of Bastrop, LA

What's burningSouthern Rough

How it's behavingMinimalSmoldering — Burning without flame, in the ground or in roots. Can flare up days later.Creeping — Moves slowly, hugging the ground.

ComplexityType 5 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.

JurisdictionPrivate land

Cost so far$18,174

Glossary: what each term means

Minimal

Barely moving. Low, thin smoke.

Smoldering

Burning without flame, in the ground or in roots. Can flare up days later.

Creeping

Moves slowly, hugging the ground.

Moderate

Spreads with low, steady flames.

Active

Spreading evenly and steadily, with visible flame.

Extreme

Fast and unpredictable.

Running

Runs along the ground much faster than a person walks.

Flanking

Grows along the sides, not head-on.

Backing

Moves against the wind or downhill, which makes it slower.

Crowning

Climbs into the treetops and jumps crown to crown. It can't be attacked from the ground.

Short Crown Runs

Climbs into the crowns in bursts and drops back down.

Torching

Whole trees flaring up like torches.

Isolated Torching

Single scattered trees flaring up whole, like torches.

Group Torching

Whole clumps of trees flaring at once.

Spotting

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.

Wind Driven Runs

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

Burning across 739 acres of private land in Morehouse County, the Round Prarie Fire near Bastrop, Louisiana, spent 32 days active before finally ending. The incident was managed as a Type 5 Incident utilizing a single personnel, as it burned through Southern Rough fuel with minimal, smoldering, and creeping fire behavior.

Over its month-long duration, the fire averaged an approximate daily growth of 23 acres per day. During the final stages of the incident, satellite observations over the 48-hour period still detected two nearby heat signatures, illustrating the lingering footprint of the burn before the fire reached 100 percent containment and its ultimate conclusion.

Total suppression costs for the incident reached about $18,000, specifically totaling 18,174 USD. This event occurred within the region's typical fire season, which runs from June to October. Nationally, the broader context shows that 3,430,104 hectares have burned so far in 2026, marking a figure that is 37 percent below the two-decade average.