Started on Aug 28, 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
- 25 miles southwest of Junction, TX
- People working on it
- 20 people
- Complexity
- Type 5 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
- MinimalSmoldering — Burning without flame, in the ground or in roots. Can flare up days later.Isolated Torching — Single scattered trees flaring up whole, like torches.
- Jurisdiction
- SFS · 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 961 acres of private land in Sutton, Texas, the active West Fork Fire has reached 95 percent containment after three days of burning, averaging an approximate daily growth of 320 acres. Situated 25 miles southwest of Junction, the incident is currently managed by a Type 5 Incident Commander with a personnel team of 38 from the SFS agency responding to the scene.
Fire behavior on the ground is characterized as minimal, flanking, and displaying isolated torching within tall grass measuring 2.5 feet. Overhead, satellites are picking up two heat detections over the past 48 hours, illustrating the current extent of thermal activity near the perimeter.
This event unfolds during the region's typical fire season, which spans from June to October. Nationally, the broader fire landscape shows 3,150,304 hectares burned so far in 2026, marking a figure that sits 43 percent below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire burned in Texas for 5 days. In total it burned about 961 acres — around 3.9 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 3,368,499 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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More fires in Texas
- West Fork FireEnded
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