National Fire News

June 18, 2026

The National Preparedness Level increased to 3 (PL3) today as significant wildland fire activity continues across multiple geographic areas and the potential for additional large fires remains elevated in the days ahead. While current resource capability remains sufficient to sustain incident operations, geographic areas are increasingly utilizing national support to accomplish incident management objectives. The increase reflects growing demand for firefighting resources and heightened fire potential across several regions of the country.

Nationally, 74 new fires were reported yesterday, with 27 uncontained large fires currently burning across the nation. Nearly 5,000 personnel, including two Complex Incident Management Teams, are assigned to incidents nationwide. So far this year, 33,349 fires have burned more than 2.6 million acres, exceeding the 10-year average for both fires and acres burned to date.

Fire activity remains concentrated across the Northwest, Great Basin, Southwest, and Rocky Mountain areas. In the Northwest, several new large fires emerged in Washington and Oregon, including the Kartar, Roza, Cable Creek, and Tucannon Mutual Aid fires, where firefighters are responding to active fire behavior, threatened structures, and ongoing evacuations and road closures. In the Great Basin, new fires in Idaho and Nevada, including the Median, Kane Springs, and Grapevine fires, are exhibiting rapid growth and challenging fire behavior.

In the Southwest, firefighters continue working on the Sycamore Fire in Arizona and the Bear Fire in New Mexico, while crews in Nebraska remain engaged on the South Fork Fire, which has burned more than 39,000 acres. 

Across the country, firefighters, dispatchers, aviation personnel, incident management teams, and support staff continue working together to protect lives, communities, infrastructure, and natural resources as fire activity increases heading into summer.