Started on Aug 29, 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
- 12 miles northwest of Raymondville, TX
- People working on it
- 29 people
- Complexity
- Type 5 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.
- What's burning
- Tall Grass (2.5 feet)
- How it's behaving
- MinimalSmoldering — Burning without flame, in the ground or in roots. Can flare up days later.Wind Driven Runs — The wind pushes it in long runs in one direction.
- Jurisdiction
- SFS · 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 through tall grass averaging 2.5 feet in height, the Sandy Fire in Kenedy County, Texas, has consumed 2,003 acres located 12 miles northwest of Raymondville. Over its three days of burning, the fire exhibited an average daily growth of approximately 668 acres per day. Satellites detected three heat signatures over a 48-hour period near the incident, marking the extent of the spread across private land.
Fire behavior on the Type 5 incident has shifted to minimal and smoldering after experiencing wind-driven runs. A modest contingent of 29 personnel, managed by a Type 5 Incident Commander under the SFS agency, successfully brought the fire to 100 percent containment following its start on August 29, 2026.
This event unfolds within a regional fire season that typically runs from June to October. On a national scale, the broader context shows that 3,150,304 hectares have burned across the country so far in 2026, marking a figure that sits 43 percent below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire burned in Texas for 3 days. In total it burned about 2,003 acres — around 8.1 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 3,372,253 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 38% 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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