The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) is operating at National Preparedness Level 4 — the second-highest level on the five-point scale — with 16,502 firefighters and support personnel currently assigned to incidents across nine geographic areas of the United States. The scale of the mobilization reflects the extraordinary demands that the 2026 fire season has placed on the nation's wildland firefighting system.

As of September 6, 75 large fires are burning nationally, including significant clusters in the Pacific Northwest, Northern Rockies, and Northern California. In 2026 overall, 53,165 fires have been reported, burning more than 8.3 million acres — roughly double the pace of the prior five-year average for the same period.

What Preparedness Level 4 Means

The National Preparedness Level system, maintained by NIFC, reflects the aggregate demand for firefighting resources relative to available supply. At Level 4, the system is operating under severe strain:

  • Most Type 1 and Type 2 Incident Management Teams are committed to active incidents
  • Interagency Hotshot Crews (IHCs) are broadly deployed with limited availability for new requests
  • Large airtanker and aerial supervision resources are heavily utilized
  • Agency administrators must justify and prioritize resource requests through national coordination centers
  • Mobilization of military and international firefighting resources is being considered or implemented

The level dropped slightly from its earlier peak as improving weather in the Pacific Northwest and Northern Rockies began to reduce active fire behavior — but with dozens of large fires still requiring containment resources, the national system remains under significant pressure.

Military C-130 Airtankers Supporting Operations

Among the notable resource deployments in 2026, the National Guard's Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System (MAFFS) has been activated. Two C-130 airtankers and support personnel from the California Air National Guard's 146th Airlift Wing have been deployed to Redding, California, to support wildland fire operations nationally.

The MAFFS system, which converts C-130 military transport aircraft into aerial retardant delivery platforms capable of dropping approximately 3,000 gallons per sortie, is reserved for deployment when commercial large airtanker availability is insufficient to meet fire suppression demands. Its activation is a significant indicator of how stretched the nation's aerial fire suppression fleet has become in 2026.

Pacific Northwest Resources

In Washington, the Little Giant Fire's command transition from California Incident Management Team 5 to Northwest Incident Management Team 12 reflects the normal progression of a large, complex incident as it becomes more manageable. Northwest-based teams typically take over incidents in the region as fires move from aggressive initial attack phases to longer-term containment and mop-up operations.

Across the Northwest Geographic Area — which encompasses Oregon, Washington, and Idaho — dozens of Hotshot crews, Type 1 and Type 2 helicopters, single-engine airtankers (SEATs), and heavy tankers have been stationed at bases from Medford to Spokane to support rapid response to new ignitions and continued suppression of existing fires.

International Resources

During peak demand periods in August, the U.S. also mobilized firefighting resources from international partners under longstanding reciprocal agreements with Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. These international resources — primarily experienced hand crews — supplement domestic capacity when national resources are exhausted and fires continue to grow.

The Human Cost

Behind the logistics and preparedness levels are tens of thousands of individual firefighters — hotshot crew members, engine operators, helitack crews, smokejumpers, and support personnel — who have been working in rotation across the western United States since early summer. Crew fatigue, extended deployments away from home, and the physical demands of wildland firefighting in extreme heat make the human dimension of the 2026 fire season as significant as any statistical measure.

  • Total personnel assigned nationally: 16,502
  • Large fires nationally: 75 (in nine states)
  • Year-to-date fires nationwide: 53,165
  • Year-to-date acres nationwide: 8,302,657
  • National Preparedness Level: 4 (of 5)
  • Military assets deployed: 2 MAFFS C-130s (146th Airlift Wing, CA ANG)

Fire managers across the Pacific Northwest are cautiously optimistic that the improving weather pattern will allow crews to make significant containment gains on the region's most complex fires over the coming week — reducing the pressure on a national firefighting system that has been running at near-maximum capacity for much of the summer of 2026.