Map Shows Biggest Fires in US This Year as Blaze Threatens Reno
Newsweek · C · trust 66/100
0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. A fast-moving wildfire on the outskirts of Reno, Nevada, has reportedly destroyed homes, injured six people and placed tens of thousands of residents under evacuation orders or warnings.
The Hawk Fire began on Saturday and spread across the Peavine Peak area of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, northwest of Reno. It has burned roughly 15,000 acres and is zero percent contained, according to a Watch Duty tracking map.
About 42,000 residents were ordered to leave their homes, while a further 45,000 were in adjoining evacuation-warning areas. The evacuation order extended toward the edge of the University of Nevada, Reno, and authorities warned displaced residents that they might be unable to return for several days.
At least three civilians and three first responders were injured. Officials said structures had been damaged or destroyed, although the full scale was yet unknown, The Washington Post reported. Washoe County schools, with one exception, were closed Monday, while several roads were also shut, it said.
Fire officials described the blaze as human-caused.
According to a Sunday update from Washoe County, about 400 personnel and 10 air resources were assigned to the Hawk Fire, with resources drawn from local, state, federal and international agencies. Firefighters planned to use bulldozers on the southern and eastern sides of the fire to create a fuel break between the flames and residential areas.
“Firefighters are actively engaged in point protection,” it said.
The Reno emergency comes during an especially destructive U.S. fire year. As of Sunday, the National Interagency Coordination Center had recorded 50,580 wildfires in 2026, burning 7,738,302 acres. About 3.58 million acres were associated with large fires, and more than 22,000 personnel were assigned to wildfire incidents.
The National Interagency Fire Center said on Sunday that the Northwest remained the country’s busiest region, with “29 large fires and eleven complex incident management teams assigned.” Firefighters had responded to 129 percent of the 10-year average number of fires and the acreage burned stood at 169 percent of the average.
By August 23, the country had recorded 50,580 wildfires and 7,738,302 acres burned, compared with 45,177 fires and 4,052,850 acres over the same period in 2025.
The 2026 acreage was also higher than the comparable totals for every year from 2016 through 2025. The previous highest figure in that comparison was roughly 6.62 million acres in 2017.
The 10 largest incidents listed in the National Interagency Coordination Center’s final-occurrence year-to-date data set , ranked by reported incident size, were:
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Fitzpatrick and Sam Wilson.
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