Started on Aug 19, 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
- 45 miles north of Gillette, WY
- Cause
- Natural
- People working on it
- 18 people
- Complexity
- Type 3 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
- MinimalTorching — Whole trees flaring up like torches.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.
- 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 896 acres of private timber, grass, and understory land in Campbell County, the active West Coal Creek Fire is situated 45 miles north of Gillette, Wyoming. Having burned for four days since its natural start on August 19, 2026, the incident has maintained an average daily growth of approximately 224 acres per day. Fire behavior currently involves minimal activity alongside torching and spotting.
Operations on the ground are managed by a Type 4 Incident Command, with a total of 18 personnel assigned to the Type 4 Incident. Current suppression efforts have achieved 90 percent containment of the perimeter, with operations accumulating a cost of $20,000.
This incident unfolds during the region's typical fire season, which spans from June to October. On a broader scale, the national landscape has seen 2,982,133 hectares burned so far in 2026, marking a figure that is 46 percent below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire burned in Wyoming for 4 days. In total it burned about 896 acres — around 3.6 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 3,321,900 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 39% 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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