2026 Pope County, Illinois Wildfires
Newest wildfires in Pope County
Largest wildfires in Pope County this season
All 2026 Pope County Fires · 4 fires
A fire is listed here when it is located in Pope County. Each complex is counted once, through its parent: the parent carries the complex's acres, and its member fires are listed beneath it without being counted again. A fire that crossed a county line is listed with the acres that burned in Pope County, not its whole reported size. A fire located elsewhere that burned into Pope County is listed too, at its Pope County acres, and is not added to the Pope County fire counts. County lines come from a different boundary dataset than state lines, so Pope County's acres are counted along county lines and can differ a little at the edges from the figures on the state page.
| Fire | Start date | Containment | Status | Acres | Center | Ignition point |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bay City Fire | Feb 28, 2026 | — | Inactive | 27 | 37.1486, -88.4514 | 37.1451, -88.4628 |
| Millstone Fire | Mar 21, 2026 | — | Inactive | 6 | 37.4766, -88.6735 | 37.4744, -88.6757 |
| Ragsdale Fire | Feb 20, 2026 | — | Inactive | 3 | 37.4245, -88.6746 | 37.4236, -88.6740 |
| Wilkins Road Fire | Oct 1, 2026 | — | Inactive | 1 | 37.5923, -88.6388 | 37.6070, -88.6353 |
| Totals | 2026 Season Fires 4 | Active Fires 0 | Acres Burning 0 | 2026 Season Acres 37 |
Land cover · Pope County 2026
Burned acres in Pope County for the 2026 season, split by the kind of land that burned. Each figure counts the LANDFIRE 30 m cells inside a fire's latest mapped perimeter. The Fires tab carries the reported season acreage.
Forest ownership · Pope County 2026
Burned forest acres in Pope County for the 2026 season, split by who owns the land. Owners are mapped for forestland, so every figure here counts burned cells whose LANDFIRE lifeform is Tree. The Fires tab carries the season acreage this site reports.
Burn severity · Pope County 2026
Burned acres in Pope County for the 2026 season, split by how severely each cell of ground burned. Each figure counts the 30 m cells inside a fire's latest mapped perimeter, measured from satellite imagery. The Fires tab carries the reported season acreage.
Severity comes from the differenced normalized burn ratio (dNBR), the same index the federal burn severity programs publish, classified with the standard thresholds.
This is an initial assessment. Trees keep dying for months after a burn, so severity in forest reads conservative until the official assessments arrive after the season.