US National Interagency Fire Center Wildfire Update for the Week Ending August 18th

The US National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) is reporting that as of Friday, August 18th, 92 large wildfires have burned more than a half million acres in 14 states. Fourteen large new wildfires were reported on Thursday alone. Currently, more than 11,900 wildland firefighters and support personnel have been deployed to incidents across the country. The National Preparedness Level has been raised to a 4 out of 5.

The number of active large fires stands at 92 (not including individual fires within complexes). There are 551,320 acres involved in active fires. The total number of wildfires contained stands at 6.

The states reporting large wildfires this week are Alaska with 21; Montana with 13; Idaho with 12; New Mexico with 9; California with 8; Arizona with 7; Colorado and Oregon with 5 each; Washington with 4; Texas with 3; Hawaii with 2; and Louisiana, Utah, and Florida with 1 each.

A type 1 incident management team is mobilizing in Hawaii to assist with wildfire suppression efforts. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) continues to work closely with state and local agencies on Maui.

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

• From 1/1/23 through 8/18/23, 35,702 wildfires have been reported and they have burned 1,699,381 acres.
• From 1/1/22 through 8/18/22, 42,995 wildfires had been reported and they had burned 5,951,890 acres.
• The 10-year average (2013–22) for the same period is 38,042 wildfires and 4,523,391 acres burned.