Started on Aug 11, 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
- 12 miles north of White River Ranger Station, SD
- People working on it
- 28 people
- 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
- MinimalRunning — Runs along the ground much faster than a person walks.Flanking — Grows along the sides, not head-on.
- Jurisdiction
- BIA · 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 1,297 acres of federal land in Oglala Lakota, South Dakota, the active Xu Hill Fire has consumed the landscape near Rockyford at an average daily growth of approximately 649 acres per day over its two days of burning. Fire behavior is characterized as minimal, running, and flanking through 2.5-foot tall grass.
A Type 4 Incident managed by a Type 4 IC with 28 personnel from the Bureau of Indian Affairs has brought the fire to 90 percent containment. Operations have incurred a cost of 90,000 USD near the White River Ranger Station.
Regionally, South Dakota's typical fire season spans from June to October. Across the country, 2,893,377 hectares have burned so far in 2026, marking a figure that is 47 percent below the two-decade average.
In context
This wildfire burned in South Dakota for 6 days. In total it burned about 1,297 acres — around 5.2 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 3,286,050 hectares have burned so far in 2026 — 40% 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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