Started on Jun 21, 2026.
United States todayLive
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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
- 23 miles east of Clear, AK
- Cause
- Natural
- People working on it
- 18 people
- Complexity
- Type 4 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.
- What's burning
- Timber (Grass and Understory)
- How it's behaving
- ActiveTorching — Whole trees flaring up like torches.Running — Runs along the ground much faster than a person walks.
- Jurisdiction
- DNR · State 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.
Summary written on Sep 11, while the fire was still active. It has since ended — the figures above are current.
Burning across the timber, grass, and understory of Denali County, Alaska, the active Tatlanika Fire is located 23 miles east of Clear. Having ignited naturally on June 21, the fire has been burning for 82 days, maintaining an approximate average daily growth of 471 acres per day to reach a total size of 38,636 acres. Fire behavior is currently characterized as active, torching, and running, driven by the regional conditions typical of a fire season that spans from June to October.
Management of the 15 percent contained incident falls under a Type 4 Incident Command, with 18 personnel deployed by the State Department of Natural Resources to oversee the state-managed land. The suppression effort has accumulated a total cost of $252,356 thus far.
This incident unfolds within a broader national context where 3,207,126 hectares have burned across the country so far in 2026, marking a figure that sits 41 percent below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire burned in Alaska for 95 days. In total it burned about 38,636 acres — around 156 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 3,430,104 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 37% 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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