US National Interagency Fire Center Wildfire Update for the Week Ending September 8th

The US National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) is reporting that as of Friday, September 8th, 72 large wildfires have burned more than 468,876 acres in 14 states. Five new large wildfires were reported. Approximately 13,000 wildland firefighters and support personnel are assigned to incidents across the nation. The National Preparedness Level has been reduced to a 3 out of 5 (down from a 4).

The number of large new fires or emergency responses as of September 8th was 5. The number of active large fires stands at 72 (not including individual fires within complexes). Currently, there are 468,876 acres involved in active fires. The total number of fires contained stands at 1.

The states reporting large fires are Oregon with 15; Idaho with 11; Montana with 9, Washington with 8; Colorado, California, Louisiana, and Texas with 5 each; New Mexico, Arizona, and Oklahoma with 2 each; and Florida, Arkansas, and Utah with 1 each.

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

• Year-to-date through September 8th, 40,683 wildfires have been reported and they have burned 2,106,507 acres.
• During the same period last year, 23,114 wildfires had been reported and they had burned 6,492,583 acres.
• The 10-year average (2013–22) for the same period is 42,498 wildfires and 5,534,893 acres burned.

Looking ahead, the predictive services staff at the National Interagency Coordination Center have released the National Significant Wildland Fire Potential Outlook for September through December.