Started on Aug 22, 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
- 21 miles northwest of Kendall, FL
- Cause
- Natural
- Complexity
- Type 4 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
- Minimal
- Jurisdiction
- NPS · Federal 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 347 acres of federal land in Miami-Dade County, the active Vulture Fire is situated 21 miles northwest of Kendall, Florida, where it is managed by a Type 4 Incident Command under the National Park Service. Having started on August 22, 2026, and now standing at 80 percent containment with a Type 4 complexity, the natural-cause fire has exhibited minimal fire behavior while consuming 2.5-foot tall grass. Satellites are picking up 25 heat detections clustered nearby over the past 48 hours.
This incident unfolds during the region's typical fire season, which runs from June to October. Nationally, the broader wildfire context for 2026 shows 2,993,191 hectares burned so far, tracking 45 percent below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire burned in Florida for 2 days. In total it burned about 347 acres — around 1.4 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 3,343,020 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 39% below the two-decade average. Data from Copernicus GWIS.
We'll email you if it grows, if it gets more contained, or if it goes out.
At most one alert every 6 hours, and only when something changes.
No account. One-click unsubscribe. · Privacy
Community reports
Reports from people near the fire · unverified
Be the first to report what is happening →
Not official emergency information. In an emergency, contact fire services/authorities.
More fires in Florida
- H2 FireEnded
- Iao FireActive
- 3 Alpha Sierra FireContained
- Chipmunk FireContained
- Newman Dr FireContained
- The H1 FireEnded