Started on Apr 28, 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
- 20 miles southwest of TUCUMCARI, NM
- People working on it
- 33 people
- Complexity
- Type 3 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
- MinimalSpotting — 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.
- 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 for 128 days since its start on April 28, 2026, the Sparks Fire has grown to cover 6,000 acres of private land primarily fueled by 2.5-foot-tall grass in Quay County, New Mexico. Located 20 miles southwest of Tucumcari near Jordan, the incident has averaged approximately 47 acres of growth per day. Despite its long duration and spread, the fire is currently fully contained at 100 percent, exhibiting minimal fire behavior with some spotting.
Operations to monitor and secure the incident involve 33 personnel managed under a Type 4 Incident Commander, within the framework of a Type 3 Incident complexity, accumulating a total cost of $200,000. While this local event winds down, the broader national landscape shows 3,172,718 hectares burned so far in 2026, marking a figure that is 42% below the two-decade average, even as the region's typical fire season spans from June to October.
In context
This wildfire burned in New Mexico for 141 days. In total it burned about 6,000 acres — around 24 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 3,415,301 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.
More fires in New Mexico
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- Corralitos FireEnded
- Mccauley Springs FireContained
- Rayado Mesa FireEnded
- Antelope FireEnded
- Perro Canyon FireEnded