US National Interagency Fire Center Wildfire Update for the Week Ending May 26th

The US National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) is reporting that as of last Friday (5-26-23), seven large wildfires have burned 46,369 acres in six states, with one large new wildfire reported in Oregon during the week. Year-to-date, 17,792 wildfires have burned 498,820 acres nationwide. Currently, the National Preparedness Level is at a 2 out of 5.

The number of active large fires (not including individual fires within complexes) stands at 7. The total number of wildfires fires contained stands at 2. The states currently reporting large wildfires are North Carolina with 2 and 1 each in Alaska, Arizona, Florida, New Mexico, and Oregon.

The NIFC offers the following year-to-date comparison:

• From 1/1/23 through 5/26/23, 17,292 wildfires have been reported and they have burned 498,820 acres.
• From 1/1/22 through 5/26/22, 11,724 wildfires had been reported and they had burned 1,843,997 acres.
• The 10-year average (2013–22) for the same period is 21,000 wildfires and 969,573 acres burned.

The National Interagency Coordination Center, located at the NIFC, continues to work with the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center to support ongoing firefighting in Alberta and British Columbia. Resources from the US include interagency hotshot crews, incident management teams, equipment, and supplies. In addition to the federal firefighting resources mobilized, several state wildland fire agencies are also providing personnel and equipment to support the effort in Canada.