The Cram Fire in Oregon broke out on July 13 and has been burning ever since. To date, it has impacted 150 square miles of land, nearly 100,000 acres and has flirted with “megafire” status. Fueled by strong winds and high temperatures, it’s burning southeast of Portland, in a sparsely populated area.
Firefighters have made some progress with the fire. It is currently 73% contained, according to Oregon officials.
The fire is the biggest, to date, in the U.S. in 2025. (Fire season, however, typically peaks in the late summer months.) As of 11:00 p.m. Sunday evening, the fire had burned 95,748 acres. Should it reach 100,000 acres, that would meet the U.S. Interagency Fire Center’s definition of a megafire, a term meant to underscore the size and severity of massive fires (much like the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale defines hurricanes).
The Cram Fire’s location has made it a possible megafire that doesn’t have the same level of tragedy as smaller fires have in California. To date, only four houses have been destroyed, though hundreds of other buildings are still threatened. The cause of the fire is still unknown.
Evacuation orders and warnings remain in place across at least three counties – Jefferson, Wasco and Crook County, per Central Oregon Fire. Officials said in an update Sunday they were fire anticipating cooler weather, higher humidity and possibly rain to help “moderate fire behavior.”
More than 930 firefighters are working to extinguish the blaze.
The Cram Fire is, by far, the largest in the country right now, but it’s far from the only wildfire that is threatening land across the U.S.
Two wildfires on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon has burned over 70,000 acres and destroyed a historic lodge. And in Colorado and Utah, the Deer Creek fire has burned over 16,000 acres.
