Box Springs Fire — Jefferson County, Oregon
Active fire · data from NIFC, refreshed 4 minutes ago · NIFC lists this incident as “0512 BOX SPRINGS” · 18 Miles W from MITCHELL, OR
The Box Springs Fire is burning in Jefferson County, Oregon, 18 mi (28 km) WNW of Mitchell. NIFC's most recent report puts it at 21,432 acres and 100% contained. It was first reported on July 17, 2026, and the cause is recorded as natural.
- Size
- 21,432 acres
- Contained
- 100%
- Discovered
- July 17, 2026
- Cause
- Natural
- Personnel assigned
- 209
- Complexity
- Type 1 Incident
- Protecting agency
- DOF
- Fuel
- Short Grass (1 foot)
- Fire behaviour
- Active
Show this fire on the live map
What the containment figure means
Crews have a control line all the way around this fire. That is not the same as the fire being out — a fire can be 100% contained and still burning inside that line for weeks. NIFC does not report a fire as out until the whole thing is cold.
How far it is from town
Straight-line distance and the direction you would look from each town to reach the fire's reported point of origin. A large fire is tens of miles across, so its nearest edge is closer than this — these are distances to the origin point NIFC publishes, not to the fire's edge.
| Town | Distance | Direction | County |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mitchell | 18 mi (28 km) | WNW | Wheeler |
| Prineville | 28 mi (46 km) | NE | Crook |
| Madras | 31 mi (50 km) | E | Jefferson |
| Warm Springs | 39 mi (62 km) | ESE | Jefferson |
| Redmond | 42 mi (67 km) | NE | Deschutes |
Mapped perimeter
No mapped perimeter has been published for this fire yet. Small fires frequently never get one — the acreage above is the agency's reported estimate, which is a number from the field rather than a measured polygon.
Fire weather and where the smoke is going
Read at Prineville Airport, 28 mi (46 km) from this fire — the one point FireWatcher polls the National Weather Service for. It is regional context, not this fire's own weather, and over that distance it can be wrong.
70°F, wind 5 mph from the NNW gusting 2 mph.
The transport wind — the layer that actually carries a smoke column — is 3 mph out of the SE, so smoke from fires in this area is being pushed toward the northwest, with a mixing height around 400 ft — the lower that number, the more smoke stays down where people breathe it.
Cameras near this fire
ALERTWest fire cameras
- Grizzly Mtn
26 mi (42 km) away, fire lies ENE of the camera · currently panned elsewhere
ODOT TripCheck road cameras
- US26 at Ochoco Summit
11 mi (17 km) away, fire lies NNW of the camera
- US26 at Keyes Summit
23 mi (37 km) away, fire lies WNW of the camera
- OR218 at Prindle Hill
25 mi (40 km) away, fire lies SSW of the camera
Live views are on the map. ALERTWest units are mountaintop pan-tilt-zoom cameras and they move, so "panned toward the fire" is where the camera was pointed at the last data refresh, not a promise of what is in frame. TripCheck cameras are fixed and look at the road, not at the fire.
Where to get official information
FireWatcher does not carry evacuation levels and is not an official source. Evacuation levels for this fire are issued by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, not by any of the feeds on this page. If you are deciding whether to leave, use these:
- OR-Alert — the state's emergency alert system. Sign up before you need it.
- Central Oregon Fire Info — the interagency public information site for fires in this region.
- InciWeb — official incident pages for larger fires, published by the managing agency.
- NWS Pendleton and NWS Portland — red flag warnings and fire weather watches.
Other fires burning nearby
- Brewer Fire
70,821 acres · 100% contained · Jefferson County
- Beachcomb Fire
13,648 acres · 100% contained · Jefferson County
- Bench Fire
4,000 acres · 90% contained · Jefferson County
- Round Butte Fire
1,163 acres · 98% contained · Jefferson County
- Crosswhite Fire
342,923 acres · 99% contained · Wheeler County
- Second Flat Fire
105,854 acres · 99% contained · Harney County
- Grasshopper Fire
93,998 acres · 97% contained · Wasco County
- Porcupine Ridge Fire
79,200 acres · 100% contained · Gilliam County
Where these numbers come from
Incident name, acreage, containment, cause, personnel and complexity are read straight from the National Interagency Fire Center's WFIGS interagency feed (CC-BY 3.0), which FireWatcher polls every five minutes; this page was built from the poll at Sep 12, 2026, 2:04 PM PDT (4 minutes ago). Perimeters come from the same source. Satellite heat is NASA FIRMS VIIRS. Weather is the National Weather Service. Aircraft positions are ADS-B via adsb.lol (ODbL 1.0). Camera positions are ALERTWest / University of Oregon and ODOT TripCheck. Distances are computed here from the published point of origin.
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