How many wildfires are burning right now?
The live national wildfire pulse — active fires, acres burning, and states under fire-weather alerts across the U.S. right now, straight from official NIFC + NWS feeds. Updated continuously.
What the pulse tracks
This is a real-time read on the scale of wildfire activity nationwide. The numbers are official reported figures from the National Interagency Fire Center and the National Weather Service — the same sources emergency managers and journalists rely on. They are designed for situational awareness and lag real-time ground conditions, so during an active fire near you, always follow your local authorities and evacuation orders.
Live wildfire pulse FAQ
How many wildfires are burning in the U.S. right now?
The live pulse above shows the current number of active (uncontained) wildfires the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) is tracking nationwide, refreshed automatically. The figure reflects significant incidents agencies are managing and lags real-time ground conditions — it is for awareness, not emergency response.
Where does this wildfire data come from?
Active fire counts, acres, and the largest-fires list come from NIFC’s interagency incident feed. The states under fire-weather alerts come from the National Weather Service. Both are official sources; figures are reported values and can lag conditions on the ground.
How often does the pulse update?
It auto-refreshes every few minutes while the page is open, and the underlying feed is cached briefly to stay fast. Numbers shown in a shared link preview reflect the last time that link was crawled, so they may be slightly behind the live page.
What counts as an “active” wildfire here?
An active wildfire is an incident in NIFC’s feed that has not yet been reported as contained. As fires reach full containment they fall out of the active count. Very small or brand-new local fires may not appear immediately.
Awareness only — figures are official reported values from NIFC and NWS and are not real-time ground truth. FireRisk.ai is an independent risk-information service and is not an emergency service. In a wildfire emergency, call 911 and follow your local authorities.