A fire 30 miles from Leavenworth has taken 172,896 acres

On the morning of October 2, 2026, the Little Giant Fire, 30 miles northwest of Leavenworth, Washington, stood at 172,896 acres, unchanged from the report before. The National Interagency Fire Center’s situation report lists it at 93% contained, with 386 people assigned and 40 structures still counted as threatened.

It is the largest incident in that report’s top-five list, ahead of the Sinlahekin Fire at 166,007 acres and the Grasshopper Fire at 93,972. It is also a fire in its last stage: the entry describes “minimal fire behavior” in timber and dormant brush, a long way from the language the same document used for it five weeks earlier.

The October 2 entry for Little Giant

In the situation report, issued at 0730 Mountain time, Little Giant sits under the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest unit with a zero-acre change, 93% containment and an estimated 386 personnel, down 125 from the prior report. The location is written as thirty miles northwest of Leavenworth. The notes say a Complex Incident Management Team, Northwest Team 12, is running the fire and is also managing the nearby Sisi incident, and the fuels are listed as timber and dormant brush. The 386 people on Little Giant make up about 9% of the 4,093 personnel committed to incidents nationwide that morning, and the Northwest Area holds seven of the country’s 11 uncontained large fires, which is where the national effort sits in early October.

For scale, the Okanogan-Wenatchee is a forest of 3.8 million acres along the east slopes of the Cascade Range in Washington, so the fire’s acreage equals about 4.5% of the forest’s total area. The forest’s own page lists the Little Giant closure among several fire-related closures, and the order itself names the Wenatchee River and Entiat Ranger Districts as the ground it covers.

From a lightning start to 23% containment

Local station KPQ reported that lightning started the fire on July 15, 2026. By July 24 it had grown to 7,558 acres from under 1,100 in 36 hours, with Level 3 evacuations in place for the Trinity area and Chikamin Ridge Road and no structures damaged. The station placed it in the Glacier Peak Wilderness, with high winds and heat hampering aerial work. By July 27 the total was 22,296 acres at 0% containment, with 452 structures threatened and 190 personnel assigned.

The fire kept growing through August. In the August 27 national situation report, Little Giant was at 149,863 acres, up 2,237 in a day, 23% contained, with 2,076 personnel and “active fire behavior with flanking, backing and group torching.” Numerous structures and communication infrastructure were endangered, and California Team 5 held command of the incident.

Between that report and the October 2 one, the fire added 23,033 acres, containment rose from 23% to 93%, and personnel fell by roughly 1,700. Threatened structures dropped from 452 in July to 40, and command passed from a California team to Northwest Team 12.

A closure order through October 31

The Forest Service’s closure order 06-17-07-2026-40 took effect September 3 and runs through October 31, 2026. It covers a large contiguous area of the Wenatchee River and Entiat Ranger Districts, bordered on the south by Eagle Creek Road and reaching north through the White River drainage. The order states its purpose as “to ensure the safety of the public and firefighting resources during the Little Giant Fire,” and it shuts about 33 developed campgrounds and the trails inside its boundary. Federal, state and local officers on official duty and holders of specific Forest Service permits are exempt from it.

Containment of 93% is not full containment. The closure order’s October 31 expiry is the one fixed date in the public record for the area, and it was issued on September 3, while the fire was still growing, so the entry to the closed zone stays prohibited through that date unless the Forest Service amends the order. Nothing in the October 2 report shifts that date or ties it to the 93% figure.

The Grasshopper Fire in Oregon for comparison

The same report lists the Grasshopper Fire, fourteen miles southwest of Dufur, Oregon, at 93,972 acres and 98% contained, with 218 personnel and 33 structures threatened. At that size Grasshopper is about 54% as large as Little Giant, and the report’s notes describe smoldering and creeping fire in brush, hardwood litter and closed timber litter there. Both fires carry the same “minimal fire behavior” language, both were unchanged in acreage from the prior report. Grasshopper’s staffing fell by only 4 people from the prior report, against 125 at Little Giant, which fits a fire that was already at 98% and had less demobilizing left to do.

The October 2 entry leaves Little Giant with one open item that the report itself spells out: 7% of the fire remains uncontained, with 386 people still assigned to it.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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