Started on Sep 4, 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
- 31 miles southwest of Broadus, MT
- People working on it
- 18 people
- Complexity
- Type 5 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.
- What's burning
- Timber (Litter and Understory)
- How it's behaving
- ModerateCreeping — 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 200 acres of private timber land featuring litter and understory in Powder River, Montana, the active Three Bar Corral Fire is showing moderate, creeping fire behavior as response efforts are managed by a Type 4 Incident Commander with 18 personnel assigned to the Type 5 Incident. Located 31 miles southwest of Broadus, the fire has cost $25,000 so far.
Satellites are picking up five heat detections nearby over the last 48 hours, illustrating the current footprint of the incident. This fire burns against the backdrop of the region's typical fire season, which runs from June to October. Across the country, 3,177,542 hectares have burned so far in 2026, marking a figure that is 42% below the two-decade average.
Containment on the Three Bar Corral Fire currently stands at 20 percent since it started on September 4, 2026.
In context
This wildfire burned in Montana for 1 day. In total it burned about 200 acres — around 0.8 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 3,404,331 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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