Iron Fire forces evacuations in Eureka, Utah — and the Starry Fire forces evacuations in Anderson, Alaska
1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) True Color RGB images (above) showed the development of pyrocumulus clouds and and a dense smoke plume associated with the Iron Fire in northern Utah (south of Salt Lake City) on 20 June 2026. At the beginning of the animation, a widespread veil of low-altitude smoke from the previous day of burning blanketed the area.
1-minute GOES-18 GeoColor RGB images with an overlay of Next Generation Fire System (NGFS) Fire Detection polygons (below) highlighted the growth of the Iron Fire during the day — and it eventually forced evacuations for parts of Eureka, Utah. The Iron Fire burned very hot, first reaching the 137.88ºC saturation temperature of GOES-18 ABI Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) detectors at 1705 UTC.
Farther to the north over Interior Alaska, 1-minute GOES-18 Fire Temperature RGB images with NGFS polygons (below) displayed the thermal signature of the Starry Fire — which forced an evacuation of the Anderson area on the evening of 20 June (local time). Early fire detection using GOES-18 was a challenge in this case, due to the presence of widespread dense convective clouds.