Sioux Fire (Minnesota)
True color
Fire (SWIR)
Infrared / SWIR (right): sees through smoke.
🟢 green = vegetation
🟤 red/brown = burned
🟠 orange = active fire
Imagery: Sentinel-2 (Copernicus). Drag to compare smoke vs. infrared.
Heat detections: NASA FIRMS (last 48h).
Quick facts
- Location
- 20 Miles NW from Ely, MN
- Cause
- Natural
- Personnel
- 61
- Complexity
- Type 2 Incident
- Fuel
- Closed Timber Litter
- Behavior
- Minimal, Smoldering, Creeping
- Jurisdiction
- USFS · Federal land
Burning for 50 days across St. Louis County, the active Sioux Fire spans 6,833 acres, located 20 miles northwest of Ely, Minnesota, under federal land ownership managed by the USFS with NIMO and 61 personnel. The fire behavior is currently characterized as minimal, smoldering, and creeping through closed timber litter, driven by a natural cause.
Despite its long duration and an average daily growth of approximately 137 acres per day, suppression efforts led by a Type 2 Incident management team have brought the fire to 90 percent containment at a cost of $8,274,806.
This fire occurs within the region's typical fire season, which runs from June to October, amidst a broader national context where 3,126,257 hectares have burned so far in 2026, tracking 43% below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire has been burning in Minnesota for 51 days. So far it has affected roughly 6,833 acres — about 28 km². At 90% containment, the fire is nearly under control.
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 3,126,257 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 43% below the two-decade average. Data from Copernicus GWIS.
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