Elephant Fire
13,930 acres
100% contained
California

The Elephant Fire is on the current NIFC active-incident list at 13,930 acres and 100% contained, 41 days after it was discovered on Jul 11.

Source: the federal NIFC/WFIGS Incident Locations feed, re-read every 30 minutes. Last read 2026-08-22 03:13 UTC. Nothing on this page is estimated.

The numbers
StateCalifornia
Size13,930 acres
Containment100%
CauseUndetermined
DiscoveredJul 11
Personnel assigned9
Day-by-day, as we read it
DateAcresContainedChange
2026-08-0913,930100%
2026-08-1013,930100%no change
2026-08-1113,930100%no change
2026-08-1213,930100%no change
2026-08-1313,930100%no change
2026-08-1413,930100%no change
2026-08-1513,930100%no change
2026-08-1613,930100%no change
2026-08-1713,930100%no change
2026-08-1813,930100%no change
2026-08-1913,930100%no change
2026-08-2013,930100%no change
2026-08-2113,930100%no change
2026-08-2213,930100%no change
Trails within 100 km
Marlette Lake Trail — 67 km away, live AQI and conditions
Eagle Lake Trail — 84 km away, live AQI and conditions

Distance is not the whole question — smoke carries much further than fire, and trailheads and roads close well before flames reach them. Each trail page shows live AQI; check the managing agency and inciweb.nwcg.gov for closures before you drive.

What does “100% contained” mean here?

Containment is the share of the fire's perimeter that crews have a control line around — not how much of the fire is out. A 95% contained fire can still put up plenty of smoke; a 0% contained fire is still growing freely.

Where do these numbers come from?

The NIFC/WFIGS Incident Locations feed — the official interagency record used by fire managers. We re-read it every 30 minutes and stamp the read time. The day-by-day table is our own record of those reads; acres sometimes drop when a perimeter is remapped, and we label that rather than smoothing it out.

Can I still hike near it?

Check the managing agency and inciweb.nwcg.gov for closures first — they close roads and trailheads well ahead of the fire. Then check the live AQI on the trail page itself; smoke is usually what decides the day, not flames.