Public Fire Information Websites

InciWeb

A map of the United States showing the location of wildland fires, prescribed fires, and other large incidents — Figure 1. A map of the United States from InciWeb taken April 14, 2021 showing examples of wildfires, prescribed fires, and Burned Area Emergency Response Team locations.

InciWeb is an interagency all-risk incident information management system. The web-based program provides information for wildland fire emergencies and prescribed fires, but can also be used for other natural disasters and emergency incidents such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.

The system was developed with two primary missions:

Provide the public a single source of incident related information; and
Provide a standardized reporting tool for the public affairs community

Official announcements include evacuations, road closures, news releases, maps, photographs, and basic information and current situation about the incident.

Interactive Wildfire Map

Get the latest incident specific wildfire data, including personnel count, cost, acres, percent contained and structures threatened, from the National Wildfire Coordinating Group's map.

Social

Social media tweets from National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) and Inciweb.
Tweets by inciweb	Tweets by Forest Service_NIFC

National Wildland Fire Preparedness Level (PL)

PL 2: On Monday, May 8 at 6:00 p.m. (Mountain Time), the National Wildland Fire Preparedness Level increased to PL2.

Due to an increase in resource commitment to both wildland fire and prescribed fire across multiple Geographic Areas, coupled with a significant Request for Assistance from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center for hand crews and Incident Management Teams, the National Preparedness Level increased one Preparedness Level.

The change to Preparedness Level 2 for the U.S. is based on the sustained level of national fire activity primarily in the Southern, Eastern, and Southwest geographic areas. There has also been an ongoing demand for prescribed fire resources. The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center’s request for assistance is due to many areas in Canada experiencing high winds, increasing fire activity, and the evacuation of several communities. As of May 8, 2023, Canada was at a national Preparedness Level 4 with Alberta province at Preparedness Level 5.

Further information on National Wildland Fire Preparedness Levels 1 - 5 can be found on the NIFC Website.

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Drones)

Glossary of Wildland Fire Definitions and Acronyms

National Wildfire Coordinating Group's Glossary A - Z

National Interagency Fire Center

The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), located in Boise, Idaho, is the nation's support center for wildland firefighting. Eight different agencies and organizations are part of NIFC. Decisions are made using the interagency cooperation concept because NIFC has no single director or manager.

Fire Enterprise Geospatial Portal

Fire Enterprise Geospatial Portal (EGP) is the authoritative source of standardized geospatial information for the full range of wildfire activities ranging from readiness to response to planning.

Fire EGP leverages multiple sources of spatial data for mapping, decision support, business intelligence, and situational awareness through multiple tools to view and analyze wildland fire data.

It is a web based interface that allows you to learn information about an incident geospatially. In other words, you can find the wildfire you are interested in on the map, click it and learn things like: size; containment; ownership; perimeter; hot spots; historical fire occurrence; fire weather, etc.