US National Interagency Fire Center Wildfire Update as of August 19th

The US National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reported that as of Monday, August 19th, 62 large active wildfires are being managed with full suppression strategies nationwide. Current fires have burned 2,237,578 acres. The National Wildfire Preparedness Level remains at a 5 out of 5.

There are currently 22,235 wildland firefighters and support personnel assigned to wildfires, including 22 complex and 5 Type 1 incident management teams, 514 crews, 997 engines, 127 helicopters, and four Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems. In addition, 60 fireline management personnel from Australia and New Zealand are assigned to support large fires in the Northwest Area. There are also 245 soldiers from the 14th Brigade Engineer Battalion and the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment based out of Joint Base Lewis McChord (JBLM) currently deployed in support of wildland fire operations on the Boise National Forest. NIMO (Team 2) is assigned to support the military contingent.

Fuels and fire behavior advisories are in place for Northwest Texas, Colorado’s Front Range and Eastern Wyoming, Southwest Oregon, the region east of the Cascades in Oregon and Washington, and California.

Daily Statistics

As of Monday, there 3 large new fires. In total, there are 62 active large wildfires that have burned 2,237,578 acres in 11 states. Oregon has 16 wildfires; Idaho has 12; Washington has 11; California has 7; Montana has 5; Wyoming has 4; Arizona and Texas have 2 each; and Oklahoma, Nevada, and South Dakota have 1 each.

The updated year-to-date comparison is as follows:

• Year-to-date through August 19th, 30,866 wildfires were reported, and they have burned 5,401,881 acres.
• During the same period last year, 36,146 wildfires were reported, and they had burned 1,751,041 acres.
• The 10-year average (2014–23) for the same period is 38,732 wildfires and 4,437,596 acres burned.