US National Interagency Fire Center Wildfire Update for the Week Ending July 21st

The US National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) is reporting that as of Friday, July 21st, 29 large wildfires have burned 126,020 acres in seven states. Eight large new wildfires were reported during the week. Since January 1st, 28,088 wildfires have burned 719,400 acres across the US. During the week, the National Preparedness Level was raised to a 3 out of 5.

The National Interagency Coordination Center (NICC) located at the NIFC reports that since May 8th, the US has mobilized a total of 2,050 personnel to Canada, which includes: fire suppression crews (1,387 personnel), 204 individual overhead, 119 smokejumpers, 11 smokejumper spotters, 2 helicopters with 21 rappelers, and 3 rappel spotters; 10 engines (50 personnel); and 21 incident management teams (255 personnel).

The number of active large fires (not including individual fires within complexes) stands at 29. The total number of wildfires contained stands at 7. The states currently reporting large wildfires are Arizona with 9, New Mexico with 6, Idaho and Texas with 4 each, California with 3, Oregon with 2, and Colorado with 1.

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

• From 1/1/23 through 7/21/23, 28,088 wildfires have been reported and they have burned 819,400 acres.
• From 1/1/22 through 7/21/22, 19,587 wildfires had been reported and they had burned 5,538,851 acres.
• The 10-year average (2013–22) for the same period is 31,651 wildfires and 2,901,200 acres burned.