US National Interagency Fire Center Wildfire Update for August 23

The US National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reported that as of Sunday, August 23, 86 uncontained large fires are actively burning across the country. On Sunday alone, 174 new wildfires were reported nationwide, including 12 new large incidents.

The National Fire Preparedness Level remains at 5 out of 5, with 22,085 personnel assigned to incidents nationwide. The Northwest continues to have the most fire activity in the nation, with 29 large fires and 11 complex incident management teams assigned. All 10 geographic areas currently report at least one large wildfire.

Daily Statistics

As of Sunday, there are 86 large wildfires or emergency responses ongoing, with 3,627,600 acres burning in total. Two fires are contained.

As of Sunday, Oregon has 16 wildfires; Washington State has 14; Montana has 13; Idaho has 10; Nevada has five; Colorado and Florida have four each; Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Utah have three each; California and Mississippi have two each; and Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Texas have one each.

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

• Year-to-date through August 23, 50,580 wildfires have been reported, burning 7,738,302 acres.
• During the same period last year, 45,177 wildfires were reported, burning 4,052,850 acres.