The Ward Fire is on the current NIFC active-incident list at 8,683 acres and 99% contained, 21 days after it was discovered on Jul 31.
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.
| Date | Acres | Contained | Change |
| 2026-08-09 | 8,775 | 35% | |
| 2026-08-10 | 8,683 | 83% | -92 ac (remap) |
| 2026-08-11 | 8,683 | 83% | no change |
| 2026-08-12 | 8,683 | 90% | no change |
| 2026-08-13 | 8,683 | 90% | no change |
| 2026-08-14 | 8,683 | 96% | no change |
| 2026-08-15 | 8,683 | 96% | no change |
| 2026-08-16 | 8,683 | 96% | no change |
| 2026-08-17 | 8,683 | 99% | no change |
| 2026-08-18 | 8,683 | 99% | no change |
| 2026-08-19 | 8,683 | 99% | no change |
| 2026-08-20 | 8,683 | 99% | no change |
| 2026-08-21 | 8,683 | 99% | no change |
| 2026-08-22 | 8,683 | 99% | no change |
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.
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.
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.
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.