US National Interagency Fire Center Wildfire Update as of September 3rd

The US National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reported that as of Tuesday, September 3rd, 51 large active wildfires are being managed with full suppression strategies nationwide. Current fires have burned 1,777,297 acres. The National Wildfire Preparedness Level remains at a 4 out of 5.

Wildland fire managers across the West are preparing for an increase in fire activity this week. Dry lightning in several areas combined with hot and dry conditions later this week could lead to new ignitions with the potential for them to become large fires.

As we head into September, more than 14,800 wildland firefighters and support personnel are assigned to wildfires nationwide. Resources assigned to incidents include 20 complex and one Type 1 incident management teams, 311 crews, 736 engines, and 88 helicopters.

In addition, there are 60 fireline management personnel from Australia and New Zealand 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) deployed in support of wildland fire operations on the Boise National Forest. NIMO (Team 2) is assigned to support the military contingent

Daily Statistics

As of Tuesday, there 13 large new fires, and in total there are 51 active large wildfires that have burned 1,777,297 acres in 9 states. Idaho has 18 wildfires; Oregon has 15; Montana has 11; Wyoming has 7; California has 5; Washington and Arizona have 4 each; and Nevada and Alabama have 1 each. There are 5 wildfires reported as contained.

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

• Year-to-date through September 3rd, 34,126 wildfires were reported, and they have burned 6,459,301 acres.
• During the same period last year, 39,965 wildfires were reported, and they had burned 2,081,130 acres.
• The 10-year average (2014–23) for the same period is 42,206 wildfires and 5,187,753 acres burned.

The NIFC notes that there have been delays in reconciling actual acreage burned with entries into reporting systems—especially from areas with large fires and dynamic fire activity—given the very high tempo and scale of national fire activity over the past few months. Adjustments are occurring as the accuracy of fire locations, mapping, and final fire reporting is reconciled.