Bailey Fire

Howard County, Texas · Wildfire

Active Official numbers updated Sep 15, 2026 (19 minutes ago)

First reported today

Metric	Last report	Now	Change
Size	—	70 acres Sep 15, 5:00 PM	—
Containment	10% Sep 15, 4:00 PM	70% Sep 15, 5:00 PM +60 percent was 10% · Sep 15, 4:00 PM	+60 percent in about 1 hour
Crew size	—	—	—
Money spent	—	—	—

Bailey Fire summary

The Bailey Fire is a wildfire near Howard County, Texas. It has burned about 70 acres (about 53 football fields). Crews have boxed in 70% of its edge; the other 30% isn't contained yet. It's a brand-new fire, first reported today.

Size: 70 acres
Containment: 70%
Discovered: September 15, 2026 (first reported today)
Cause: Not reported

The size and containment above are current as of Tuesday, September 15th at 5:00 p.m. CDT.

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Weather & fire-spread conditions

No Red Flag Warning. The National Weather Service hasn't flagged this area for dangerous fire-spread conditions right now.

Hot, dry, and windy weather can help a fire grow; cool, calm, or wet weather helps crews. The tags below rate each day for fire spread — green is calm, red can push a fire.

A general fire-weather guide (wind matters most, then how dry it is, then heat), not a prediction of what this fire will do.

This Afternoon

100°F · Sunny

Wind 15 mph S · 1% chance of rain

Wind: Breezy Heat: Very hot Dry

Tonight

71°F · Partly Cloudy

Wind 10 to 15 mph SE · 2% chance of rain

Wind: Breezy Heat: Cool Dry

Wednesday

99°F · Sunny

Wind 10 to 15 mph SE · 1% chance of rain

Wind: Breezy Heat: Hot Dry

Wednesday Night

70°F · Clear

Wind 5 to 15 mph SE · 0% chance of rain

Wind: Breezy Heat: Cool Dry

Thursday

97°F · Sunny

Wind 10 mph SE · 0% chance of rain

Wind: Breezy Heat: Hot Dry

Forecast from the National Weather Service (weather.gov), pulled Tuesday, September 15th at 5:04 p.m. CDT.

Could this fire move fast?

Weather isn't the only thing that changes how a fire moves. The ground matters too: how steep it is, and what's growing on it. These four numbers are for the exact spot where this fire started, not the whole fire. A big fire crosses a lot of different ground.

2° slope

Fire usually moves faster uphill than downhill. Heat and flame lean uphill, drying out the ground above the fire before it gets there.

0% tree canopy cover

The more tree cover above a fire, the easier it is for the fire to climb from the ground into the treetops. That's called a crown fire. Crown fires move faster, throw embers farther ahead of the fire, and are harder for crews to stop head-on.

2,528 ft elevation

Elevation by itself doesn't make a fire more or less dangerous. But it shapes the other three numbers here: what grows there, how dry things get, and what the weather does.

Elevation and slope from the USGS 3D Elevation Program; fuel type and canopy cover from LANDFIRE (USGS and U.S. Forest Service), pulled Tuesday, September 15th at 4:04 p.m. CDT.

Who's on it

This fire is small enough that no crew size or team has been posted yet. That's normal for a fire this size — those numbers show up once a fire is big enough to need a formal report.

Where to get live updates

We show the daily official picture. For minute-by-minute updates, evacuation orders, and maps, these do it best:

→ Watch Duty: real-time fire reporting and evacuations.
→ InciWeb: the government's official fire information site.

Nearby fires to Bailey Fire

No other active fires are near this one right now. It's on its own.

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