Little Giant Fire

August 26, 2026 · Evening report · Plain, Washington

Data captured Aug 26, 4:14 PM PDT · unofficial & automated — in an emergency use Watch Duty and official alerts, not this page

This is an archived report from August 26, 2026 · Evening. Read the latest brief →

A quiet 24 hours on the ground: no zone edits near Plain, and the house's Level 1 zone is unchanged since yesterday's redraw. The GIS perimeter refreshed for the first time since yesterday afternoon, adding 2,235 acres to 149,861 with containment flat at 23% — InciWeb's newer figure agrees to within 2 acres. Wind stays favorable out of the northwest and PM2.5 eased sharply from this morning's spike, though NWS renewed its Air Quality Alert through Thursday noon.

Evacuation status

The Bennetts' house is INSIDE Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready) (Level 1). Follow official instructions — see the sources below.

Fire size149,861 ac+2,235 since last report

Contained23%of the perimeter, per NIFC

Nearest fire edge5.2 miNNE of the house · as of Aug 26, 8:28 AM PDT

Satellite heat, 24 h5.5 minearest detection, N of the house · 1481 in the surrounding ~50 mi

Air quality155 AQIUnhealthy · modeled at the house

County road blocksnonelogged by the county · construction delays are in Roads, below

Level 3 — Go now
Level 2 — Get set
Level 1 — Get ready
Fire perimeter
Satellite heat, 24 h (brighter = fresher)
The Bennetts' house

Evacuation zones from the Chelan County Sheriff's live layer; fire perimeter from NIFC as of Aug 26, 8:28 AM PDT. Base geography is hand-plotted and approximate. Rings mark straight-line miles from the house. Containment lines are not mapped — no public GIS source carries them; the brief describes where they are.

The last 24 hours

The house remains inside the Level 1 "Get Ready" zone, unchanged since the Aug 25, 9:20 AM PDT redraw — no zone in the Sheriff's layer was edited in the last 24 hours. Level 2 "Get Set" holds at 2 mi NNE and Level 3 "Go Now" at 3.7 mi NNE, both untouched since Aug 16.

The GIS perimeter refreshed for the first time since yesterday afternoon, now dated Aug 26, 8:28 AM PDT — up 2,235 acres to 149,861, containment flat at 23%. InciWeb's Aug 26, 1:17 PM update puts the fire at 149,863 acres, also 23% contained — within 2 acres of the GIS figure, the tightest match yet, and the newer of the two reports; call it working current. InciWeb also names, for the first time, additional resources on scene: 275 active-duty Army infantry, 110 Washington National Guard personnel, and an Australia–New Zealand contingent with 15 engines and two Type 2 crews, alongside the roughly 2,259 total personnel already reported. Fire behavior repeats the recent pattern — morning thunderstorm winds driving rapid growth and column development, an afternoon wind shift bringing surface spread, torching, and spotting where terrain aligns. Nearest mapped edge holds flat at 5.2 mi NNE.

VIIRS logged 1,481 detections in the region over the last 24 hours, down from this morning's 1,603. The confirmed near-Plain clusters continue at similar levels, all persistent across multiple days. The single-detection blip at 10.2 mi NW noted this morning (then FRP 1.3) logged a second, stronger detection today (FRP 5.68) — still one calendar day, still UNVERIFIED; it needs to show up again tomorrow to be more than noise.

lakewenatcheeinfo.com again returned no usable content. Lake Chelan Now's latest post is still the Aug 20 community-meeting notice, the Chelan County active-emergencies page is still showing its Aug 17, 3:30 PM update, and wasmoke.blogspot.com's most recent post remains the Aug 24 one already cited. A general search surfaced only stale articles from earlier fire stages — discarded rather than reported.

Fire weather

Wind holds light NW 9 mph this afternoon — the favorable quadrant, pushing the fire away from Plain — continuing NW 5–9 mph tonight and NW 5–12 mph Thursday, gusts to 23 mph. Nothing in the north/northeast danger quadrant through the forecast window. No Red Flag Warning is posted.

Air quality

AQI 155 (PM2.5 28.8 µg/m³, PM10 30.3) as of 4 PM — flat on the headline index from this morning's 154, but PM2.5 dropped by more than two-thirds from the 99.4 morning spike, the same afternoon-clearing pattern seen all week. NWS issued a new Air Quality Alert at 10:50 AM, now running through Aug 27, 12:00 PM PDT.

Roads: no blocks logged in the GIS layer.

The plan, decided in advance

If a Level 1 zone reaches the house: confirm go-bags, documents, and medications are staged; keep both vehicles above half a tank; recheck this page and Watch Duty morning and evening.
If Level 2 reaches the house: load the cars, position them facing out, and leave early if anyone is home alone or mobility-limited. Do not wait for Level 3 to decide.
If Level 3 reaches the house — leave immediately: primary route Beaver Valley Rd → SR 207 → US 2; alternate Chumstick Hwy to Leavenworth (mind the pilot-car delays); US 2 west over Stevens Pass if east is compromised.

Default plan drafted from Ready-Set-Go guidance — worth a family walk-through while things are calm. Authorities' instructions override it.

Evacuation zones, measured from the house

Zone	Level	From the house	Boundary last edited
Little Giant	Level 1	INSIDE THIS ZONE	Aug 25, 9:20 AM PDT
Little Giant	Level 2	2 mi NNE (20°)	Aug 16, 3:20 PM PDT
Little Giant	Level 3	3.7 mi NNE (16°)	Aug 16, 3:21 PM PDT
LG Entiat	Level 3	8.4 mi ENE (58°)	Aug 22, 1:43 PM PDT
Little Giant	Level 1	9.3 mi E (89°)	Aug 22, 3:31 PM PDT
LG Entiat	Level 2	11.3 mi ENE (72°)	Aug 22, 3:31 PM PDT
LG Chelan	Level 3	15.1 mi NE (53°)	Aug 25, 9:19 AM PDT
LG Chelan	Level 2	16 mi ENE (76°)	Aug 25, 9:19 AM PDT
LG Chelan	Level 1	17.2 mi E (85°)	Aug 19, 12:57 PM PDT

Zone geometry comes only from the Sheriff's GIS layer — news descriptions of boundaries have run 10+ days behind the actual polygon edits. Distances are straight-line to the zone boundary.

Wind and weather, next four days

Air Quality Alert — in effect until Aug 27, 12:00 PM PDT

This AfternoonNW 9 mphHaze · 90°F
TonightNW 5 to 9 mphAreas Of Smoke · 50°F
ThursdayNW 5 to 12 mphMostly Sunny · 73°F
Thursday NightNW 5 to 10 mphAreas Of Smoke then Haze · 46°F
FridayNW 5 to 10 mphMostly Sunny · 73°F
Friday NightNW 7 to 10 mphPartly Cloudy · 45°F
SaturdayNW 7 to 12 mphSlight Chance Rain Showers · 68°F
Saturday NightNW 6 to 12 mphPartly Cloudy · 42°F

Report history

Report	Fire size (GIS)	Contained	Nearest edge	Zone status
Sep 17 · Evening	172,814 ac	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 17 · Morning	172,814 ac+109	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 16 · Evening	172,705 ac	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 16 · Morning	172,705 ac	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 15 · Evening	172,705 ac	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 15 · Morning	172,705 ac+22	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 14 · Evening	172,683 ac−12	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones

Previous reports(69)

Sep 14 · Morning	172,695 ac	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 13 · Evening	172,695 ac	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 13 · Morning	172,695 ac	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 12 · Evening	172,695 ac	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 12 · Morning	172,695 ac+103	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 11 · Evening	172,592 ac+191	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 11 · Morning	172,401 ac	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 10 · Evening	172,401 ac+4	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 10 · Morning	172,397 ac+198	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 9 · Evening	172,199 ac+32	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 9 · Morning	172,167 ac+641	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 8 · Morning	171,526 ac+68	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 7 · Evening	171,458 ac	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 7 · Morning	171,458 ac+295	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 6 · Evening	171,163 ac	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 6 · Morning	171,163 ac	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 5 · Evening	171,163 ac	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 5 · Morning	171,163 ac+178	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 4 · Evening	170,985 ac	81%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 4 · Morning	170,985 ac+17	73%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 3 · Evening	170,968 ac+213	65%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 3 · Morning	170,755 ac	65%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 2 · Evening	170,755 ac+110	49%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 2 · Morning	170,645 ac+5	49%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 1 · Evening	170,640 ac−144	49%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Sep 1 · Morning	170,784 ac	49%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Aug 31 · Evening	170,784 ac+7,706	49%	5.2 mi NNE	outside all zones
Aug 31 · Morning	163,078 ac−11	49%	5.2 mi NNE	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 30 · Evening	163,089 ac+535	27%	5.2 mi NNE	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 30 · Morning	162,554 ac+14	27%	5.2 mi NNE	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 29 · Evening	162,540 ac+296	27%	5.2 mi NNE	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 29 · Morning	162,244 ac−717	27%	5.2 mi NNE	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 28 · Evening	162,961 ac+1,829	25%	5.2 mi NNE	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 28 · Morning	161,132 ac+11,271	25%	5.2 mi NNE	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 27 · Evening	149,861 ac	23%	5.2 mi NNE	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 27 · Morning	149,861 ac	23%	5.2 mi NNE	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 26 · Evening	149,861 ac+2,235	23%	5.2 mi NNE	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 26 · Morning	147,626 ac	23%	5.2 mi NNE	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 25 · Evening	147,626 ac+1,584	21%	5.2 mi NNE	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 25 · Morning	146,042 ac	21%	5.2 mi NNE	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 24 · Evening	146,042 ac+1,212	15%	5.2 mi NNE	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 24 · Morning	144,830 ac	15%	5.2 mi NNE	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 23 · Evening	144,830 ac+2,604	15%	5.2 mi NNE	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 23 · Morning	142,226 ac	15%	5.3 mi NE	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 22 · Evening	142,226 ac+8	15%	5.3 mi NE	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 22 · Morning	142,218 ac+2,731	15%	5.3 mi NE	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 21 · Evening	139,487 ac	12%	6.6 mi N	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 21 · Morning	139,487 ac+910	12%	6.6 mi N	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 20 · Evening	138,577 ac+102	12%	6.6 mi N	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 20 · Morning	138,475 ac+882	12%	6.6 mi N	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 19 · Evening	137,593 ac+299	10%	6.7 mi N	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 19 · Morning	137,294 ac+1,309	10%	6.8 mi N	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 18 · Evening	135,985 ac	10%	7 mi N	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 18 · Morning	135,985 ac+1,350	10%	7 mi N	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 17 · Evening	134,635 ac+2,284	10%	7.1 mi N	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 17 · Morning	132,351 ac	10%	7.3 mi N	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 16 · Evening	132,351 ac	10%	7.3 mi N	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 16 · Morning	132,351 ac+4,266	10%	7.3 mi N	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 15 · Evening	128,085 ac	10%	8.1 mi N	Little Giant - Level 1 (Get Ready)
Aug 15 · Morning	128,085 ac	10%	8.1 mi N	outside all zones
Aug 14 · Evening	128,085 ac	7%	8.1 mi N	outside all zones
Aug 14 · Morning	128,085 ac−219	7%	8.1 mi N	outside all zones
Aug 13 · Evening	128,304 ac+533	5%	8.1 mi N	outside all zones
Aug 13 · Morning	127,771 ac+283	5%	8.1 mi N	outside all zones
Aug 12 · Evening	127,488 ac	5%	8.6 mi NNW	outside all zones
Aug 12 · Morning	127,488 ac+5,087	5%	8.6 mi NNW	outside all zones
Aug 11 · Evening	122,401 ac	2%	8.6 mi NNW	outside all zones
Aug 11 · Morning	122,401 ac+5,445	2%	8.6 mi NNW	outside all zones
Aug 10 · Evening	116,956 ac	2%	8.6 mi NNW	outside all zones

Sources

Previous briefs

Full archive →

The limits of this page

This page is an automated, unofficial synthesis and can be wrong or stale. It is not a substitute for official alerts. For live evacuation status use Watch Duty, Chelan County Emergency Management, and Everbridge alerts. In an emergency, follow instructions from local authorities.