A named incident is a managed wildfire with official reporting: location, size in acres or hectares, and a containment percentage. FireWatch links satellite detections to incidents where the data allows so you can see both the live heat and the official status.
“Percent contained” is the share of the fire’s edge that crews have secured with a control line they expect to hold — it is not how much of the fire is out. A fire can be 50% contained and still very active along the uncontained half.
Size alone does not equal danger. A large fire burning in remote wilderness may threaten no one, while a small fire near homes in steep terrain can force urgent evacuations. Proximity to people and the direction of spread matter more than acreage.
Containment can go backwards. A wind shift can breach a line and drop the percentage, so treat any figure as a snapshot and follow official incident updates during an active event.