Western fire siege holds the nation at Preparedness Level 3; Utah's Iron Fire keeps Eureka evacuated; New Mexico's McCauley Springs and Canyon Venado fires drive evacuations and road closures
Episode 200 •
25th June 2026 • EM Morning Brief • Brian Colburn
Today’s brief leads with the Western wildfire siege, with NIFC holding the country at Preparedness Level 3 amid Red Flag and critical fire weather across the Intermountain West, the Four Corners, and Interior Alaska, plus building heat across the South and West. In Utah, the Iron Fire near Eureka tops 37,000 acres with mandatory evacuations still in place. In New Mexico, the McCauley Springs Fire forces evacuations and a highway closure in the Jemez while the Canyon Venado Fire briefly shut eastbound I-40. We cover California’s Red Flag prepositioning and a Garden Grove hazmat evacuation, Arizona’s Pocket Fire near Sedona, Florida boil water notices, the central U.S. severe weather threat, and CISA’s addition of four known exploited vulnerabilities. EM Morning Brief is your concise daily update on national and state-by-state emergency management news. Produced by Sitch Radio, an EOC Voices podcast.
Key Takeaways
• National wildfire posture: NIFC holds the U.S. at Preparedness Level 3 with 32 large uncontained fires and more than 6,200 personnel committed; YTD acres burned run above the ten-year average.
• Fire weather and heat: Red Flag and critical fire weather span the Intermountain West, Four Corners, and Interior Alaska, with dangerous heat building across the South and West into the weekend.
• Utah, Iron Fire: Now 37,172 acres at 17 percent containment; mandatory evacuations remain for Eureka and Chimney Rock Pass, with residents expected to return Thursday.
• New Mexico, two active fires: McCauley Springs Fire (~150 acres, 0 percent) drives Jemez evacuations, an electric shutoff, and a Highway 4 closure; the Canyon Venado Fire (~852 acres, 0 percent) showed extreme behavior and briefly closed eastbound I-40, now reopened.
• California, prepositioning and hazmat: Cal OES prepositions engines, tenders, a helicopter, and 100-plus personnel across six Sacramento Valley counties; Garden Grove reissues precautionary evacuations for a hazmat incident.
• Arizona, Pocket Fire: Oak Creek Canyon downgraded from GO to SET north of Sedona, with restricted resident-only access.
• Florida, water lifelines: Precautionary boil water notices in Deltona (Volusia County) and Bradenton (Manatee County) after water-main breaks.
• Cyber, CISA KEV: Four vulnerabilities added June 23 (Lantronix EDS5000 and three Ubiquiti UniFi OS flaws); organizations should prioritize remediation.
• Severe weather: Damaging winds, isolated tornadoes, large hail, and flooding possible across the central U.S. and Mid-Atlantic into the Mid-South.
The Western Fire Siege remains the dominant national story.
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The National Interagency Fire center holds the country at preparedness level three with the National Fire News reporting 81 new fires, three of them new large fires and 32 large fires uncontained nationwide supported by more than 6,200 personnel.
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Year to date, 34,427 fires have burned roughly 2.8 million acres, running ahead of the 10 year average for both fires and acres.
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Hot, dry and unstable conditions are driving the relative humidity in the 10 to 15% range across much of the Intermountain west, single digits across the Southern Great Basin and Southwest and dry thunderstorms capable of sparking new starts.
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Red flag and critical fire weather concerns extend across the Intermountain west, the Four Corners and interior Alaska while dangerous heat builds across the southern U.S. and the west into the weekend.
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On the severe weather side, the National Weather Service is carrying a severe thunderstorm and flooding threat across the central US through Thursday from the Central High Plains into the mid Mississippi Valley with damaging winds, a couple of tornadoes, large hail and heavy rain possible.
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A separate severe risk runs across the Mid Atlantic into the Mid South.
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In the tropics, the National Hurricane center shows no systems threatening the US Coastline at this time in a season NOAA has forecast as below normal.
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On the cyber side, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency added four vulnerabilities to its known exploited vulnerabilities CATAL official update published 48 hours ago on June 23rd.
Federal civilian agencies face binding remediation deadlines and CISA urges all organizations to prioritize patching.
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The Department of Homeland Security shows no active National Terrorism Advisory System Advisory lets run through the states Alaska Critical fire danger grips the state after three days of lightning with more than 10,000 strikes recorded over a 48 hour span igniting multiple interior fires.
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The city of Anderson, near Clear Space Force station and about 80 miles south of Fairbanks remains affected by a wildland fire that grew to roughly 540 acres with residents directed earlier in the week to the Tri Valley School in Healy.
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Warm temperatures, low humidity and continued thunderstorm activity keep fire potential elevated.
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Arizona the pocket fire continues to burn north of Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon's evacuation status was reduced from go to set, with only residents who can show proof of identity and residence permitted entry.
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Officials caution that conditions could change quickly under hot, dry weather.
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California governor Newsom directed CAL OES to preposition firefighting resources ahead of Red Flag fire weather, approving 26 fire engines, nine water tenders, one helicopter and more than 100 personnel for Calusa, Glenn, Lake, Napa, Tahama and Yolo counties as elevated wildfire risk pairs with extreme heat.
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Separately, the City of Garden Grove reissued precautionary evacuations around a hazardous materials incident where damage to a tank valve complicated mitigation operations.
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Florida Precautionary boil water notices are in effect following water main breaks.
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Volusia county issued a 48 hour notice for a portion of Deltona after a private contractor struck a main along Howland Boulevard and a separate line break in Bradenton.
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Manatee county affected addresses on 26th Street west and Cortez Road West.
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Customers in the affected areas should boil water used for drinking and cooking and until cleared.
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NEW Mexico Multiple wildfires are driving operations.
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The McAuley Springs fire in the Jemez Ranger District of the Santa Fe National Forest grew from about 30 acres to roughly 150 acres on June 24, with high spread potential and zero containment, prompting evacuations for Jemez Falls Campground and the communities of Sierra, Los Pinos and Vallecitos.
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An electric shutoff, a closure of New Mexico Highway 4 and the evacuation of YMCA Camp Shaver to the east.
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The Canyon Venado Fire near Klein's Corners in Torrance county reached an estimated 852 acres at zero containment, exhibiting extreme behavior including running, crowning and spotting.
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Eastbound Interstate 40 closed Tuesday, has since reopened and no mandatory evacuations are in place there.
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Utah the human caused Iron Fire northwest of eureka grew to 37,172 acres at 17% containment as of June 24.
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Mandatory evacuations remain in place for the city of Eureka, Chimney Rock Pass and surrounding areas, with residents expected to be allowed to return Thursday.
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More than 500 personnel, multiple crews and engines are assigned.
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All other states and territories have no significant updates in the last 24 hours that wraps today's EM Morning Brief.
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