Started on Aug 21, 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
- 28 miles southwest of Tremonton, UT
- Cause
- Human
- People working on it
- 6 people
- Complexity
- Type 4 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.
- What's burning
- Dormant Brush, Hardwood Slash
- How it's behaving
- MinimalCreeping — Moves slowly, hugging the ground.
- Jurisdiction
- Private 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 Box Elder County, Utah, the human-caused Salt Wells Fire has achieved full containment at 585 acres after spreading at an approximate rate of 195 acres per day over three days of activity. Located 28 miles southwest of Tremonton, the incident burned on private land, consuming dormant brush and hardwood slash with minimal, creeping fire behavior.
Operations were managed by a Type 4 Incident Commander supported by six personnel, bringing total costs for the incident to $150,000. While this localized fire concluded with zero active threat, it unfolds against a broader national landscape where 2,993,191 hectares have burned so far in 2026, marking a total that sits 45 percent below the two-decade average for a typical fire season spanning June to October.
In context
This wildfire burned in Utah for 12 days. In total it burned about 585 acres — around 2.4 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 3,323,241 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 39% 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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