May 16, 2026
May 24, 2026
On May 15, 2026, a fire was spotted from aircraft on the southeastern side of Santa Rosa Island, part of California’s Channel Islands National Park. The blaze spread over the next several days, ultimately burning 18,379 acres (7,438 hectares)—about one-third of the island.
These images show the expansion of the fire’s burned area between May 16 (left), the day after it was discovered, and May 24 (right), after the fire’s growth had stabilized. The Landsat satellite images are false-color to help distinguish burned areas (brown) from healthy vegetation (green). Officials reported the fire was 97 percent contained by the evening of May 26.
NASA tools utilizing satellite observations, namely FIRMS (Fire Information for Resource Management System) and the Fire Event Explorer, show how the fire spread to the north and east over several days. As it advanced, it consumed areas of grassland, coastal sage scrub, and island chaparral.
Santa Rosa Island, like the other Channel Islands, is known for its diversity of plant and animal species, some of them rare. Observers were concerned that the fire threatened the island’s Torrey pines, a rare type of tree that in the United States grows naturally only on the northeastern coast of Santa Rosa Island and near San Diego.
Initial post-fire surveys by firefighters and unmanned aircraft indicated the Torrey pine stand remained largely intact. The fire mostly burned at lower intensity through the pine areas and spared the canopy. However, some pockets of forest sustained damage where intensity was higher. Along the northwest edge of the fire, suppression crews worked to protect another vulnerable area—the cloud forests—by cooling fuels ahead of the fire’s front.
Local reports suggest the Santa Rosa Island fire is the largest on record on any of California’s Channel Islands. Some of the islands’ chaparral and tree species are adapted to fire but less dependent on it than their mainland counterparts, according to the National Park Service, because naturally occurring fire is less frequent on the Channel Islands.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Lindsey Doermann.
References & Resources
- Capital Public Radio (2020) California Wildfire History Map. Accessed May 29, 2026.
- InciWeb (2026, May 28) Santa Rosa Island Fire. Accessed May 29, 2026.
- NASA Earth Observatory (2026, May 20) Fire Chars Santa Rosa Island. Accessed May 29, 2026.
- National Park Service, Channel Islands. Accessed May 29, 2026.
- Santa Barbara Independent (2026, May 21) What We’re Losing in the Santa Rosa Island Fire. Accessed May 29, 2026.
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