Turkey Creek Fire, Pitkin, Louisiana (2026)

This fire in numbersDay 4

94Hectares232Acres4Days burning

Containment95%

Started on Oct 8, 2026. 5% of the perimeter still to contain.

United States todayLive

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Turkey Creek Fire (Louisiana) — Sentinel-2 true color

Turkey Creek Fire (Louisiana) — Sentinel-2 SWIR (fuego)

True view Fire view

⟷

True view (left): as the eye sees it.
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: 5 miles southwest of Pitkin, LA
People working on it: 3 people
Complexity: Type 5 IncidentOfficial scale from 5 to 1: a Type 1 is the most complex in the country.
What's burning: Southern Rough
How it's behaving: MinimalCreeping — Moves slowly, hugging the ground.Backing — Moves against the wind or downhill, which makes it slower.
Jurisdiction: Private land

Glossary: what each term means

Minimal

Barely moving. Low, thin smoke.

Smoldering

Burning without flame, in the ground or in roots. Can flare up days later.

Creeping

Moves slowly, hugging the ground.

Moderate

Spreads with low, steady flames.

Active

Spreading evenly and steadily, with visible flame.

Extreme

Fast and unpredictable.

Running

Runs along the ground much faster than a person walks.

Flanking

Grows along the sides, not head-on.

Backing

Moves against the wind or downhill, which makes it slower.

Crowning

Climbs into the treetops and jumps crown to crown. It can't be attacked from the ground.

Short Crown Runs

Climbs into the crowns in bursts and drops back down.

Torching

Whole trees flaring up like torches.

Isolated Torching

Single scattered trees flaring up whole, like torches.

Group Torching

Whole clumps of trees flaring at once.

Spotting

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.

Wind Driven Runs

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 private land 5 miles southwest of Pitkin, Louisiana, in Vernon County, the Turkey Creek Fire has consumed 232 acres since it began on October 8, 2026. Over its three days of burning, the fire has averaged an estimated 77 acres per day in southern rough fuel, though its current behavior is marked by minimal, creeping, and backing activity as firefighters work toward full suppression.

The incident is managed as a Type 5 Incident under a Type 5 IC with a lean team of three personnel, keeping total suppression costs at $9,634. Despite these localized suppression efforts, the broader fire landscape in the country shows a total of 3,368,453 hectares burned so far in 2026, tracking 39 percent below the two-decade average during a typical fire season that spans from June to October.

With containment now reaching 95 percent, the Turkey Creek Fire remains active but largely subdued as crews maintain their positions on the Vernon County landscape to finish securing the perimeter.

In context

This wildfire has been burning in Louisiana for 3 days. So far it has affected roughly 232 acres — about 0.9 km². At 95% containment, the fire is nearly under control.

In the Northern Hemisphere, wildfire activity usually peaks during the warm, dry months — roughly May through October.