U.S. National Interagency Fire Center Wildfire Update – as of Monday 8th July 2024

The U.S. National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) provided an update on Monday (7-8-24), reporting that nationwide, 8 new wildfires were reported. As of Monday, 25 wildfires are being managed under full suppression strategies. Alaska continues to have the most activity (39) and a majority of those wildfires are being managed with strategies other than full suppression. Over 10,000 wildland firefighters and support personnel are assigned to incidents nationwide. The National Wildfire Preparedness Levels remains at a level 3 out of 5.

The NIFC is reporting that The Alaska Interagency Coordination Center’s Predictive Services unit and its partners have issued a fuels and fire behavior advisory spanning from central Alaska into the northeast Interior to the border with Canada. There is also a fuels and fire behavior advisory issued for California that highlights abnormally high fine fuel loading across the state. Residents, travelers, or workers on their ways to these states should be advised and familiarize themselves with the elevated risks.

The NIFC national predictive service Staff at the National Interagency Coordination Center released the National Significant Wildland Fire Potential Outlook for June through September. For additional information about the current outlook visit the Outlook page on the NICC site.

The NIFC says record-breaking heat is coinciding with very low relative humidity and windy conditions across much of the Western United States, which means that accidental ignitions can spread quickly.

As of Monday, there were 68 active large wildfires that have burned 588,315 acres in 11 states. Thirty-nine wildfires are burning in Alaska, 9 wildfires in California, New Mexico is reporting 6 wildfires. Arizona and Utah are reporting 3 wildfires each, Oregon and Nevada are reporting 2 each. One wildfire is being reported in Colorado, Idaho, New Jersey, and Washington. The total number of wildfires fires contained currently stands at 5.

The NIFC is providing these comparative statistics:

• Between 1-1-24 through 7-8-24 – 23,124 wildfires were reported, and they have burned 2,802,174 acres.
• Between 1-1-23 through 7-8-23 – 25,541 wildfires were reported, and they had burned 715,328 acres.