Crisis-related alerts in Google Maps

If there’s an active crisis in your current map view, you may find an alert with updates and safety information about the event. Active crises include wildfires, floods, and earthquakes.

Crisis-related alerts show up on your map if:

You search for an area including a wildfire and are at the correct zoom level
You select a navigation route that enters an area impacted by a crisis

Use the crisis sheet

In the alert, tap the crisis icon or alert card to expand the crisis sheet.

The sheet may also reveal more information, updates, and news articles related to the crisis.

Learn & share about the event

Under “About:”

Find a summary of the event and other event details.
To share the event, select Share .
To share the event’s location, select Share location.

Under “Help and information,” find a list of related external resources.

Report road closures to help others navigate

Open the Google Maps App .
Open the crisis sheet. Under “Navigation impact,” select Report road closure.
Follow the on-screen instructions.

Send feedback about the crisis sheet

Open the Google Maps App .
Open the crisis sheet. Under “What do you think?” select Send feedback.
Follow the on-screen instructions.

Understand crisis-related alerts

Alerts make emergency information from local, national, or international authorities easily accessible during a crisis. You can find that information highlighted on Google Maps. Examples of crisis information include emergency phone numbers, websites, or map visualizations for a detailed view.

Google Maps shows alerts for these natural disasters:

Earthquakes
Floods
Hurricanes or typhoons
Tropical storms
Wildfires

Select the icon on the map to open the alert and get more information about the crisis.

Tip: Wildfire boundaries may not appear at all zoom levels.

Get information about active wildfires

You have multiple ways to find information about wildfires on Google Maps. This information may show up in different formats on your map.

Tip: In some locations, the Wildfires layer might be referred to as the "Bushfires" layer.

Find information about wildfires

There are different ways to find information about active wildfires on your map:

Turn on the Wildfires layer: Tap Layers the Wildfires button.
Search for the fire: Enter a fire-related query into the Google Maps search box, such as “wildfires” or the name of an individual fire. Tap the result to show the layer.
Tap the fire alert banner: If an active fire’s location overlaps with the visible part of your map, a fire alert banner shows up in the Explore sheet on the Maps homescreen. Tap the banner to turn on the layer.

Tip: Wildfires only appear on the map at certain zoom levels. Make sure to zoom in to see available fire information on the map.

Understand wildfire information

On your map, wildfires can be represented by:

The wildfires icon or a tiny red circle
A red shape representing an approximate area impacted by a wildfire

Learn more about areas impacted by wildfires.

Tip: Sometimes, no active fires are visible in the layer.

Get additional information

When available, we provide more information related to a specific incident. This information is listed on the crisis sheet associated with the fire and may include:

Help and information from local authorities
News headlines
Containment information

To open the crisis info sheet, tap the fire icon on the map.

Sources for wildfire information

Google Maps uses several sources to compile data for the Wildfires layer.

Google SOS Alerts: SOS Alerts aim to make emergency information more accessible during a crisis. We bring together relevant and authoritative content from the web, social media, and Google products, and then highlight that information on Google products such as Search and Maps. Learn more about SOS alerts.
Google Public Alerts: Google Public Alerts provide access to trusted safety information directly from authorities around the world. Learn more about who provides content to Public Alerts.
National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC): Many of the fires in this layer are provided by NIFC via Wildland Fire Interagency Geospatial Services (WFIGS). These fires are represented by a point on the map and indicate the reported point of fire origin. Some of these fires may be labeled “planned fire,” also known as a prescribed fire or a controlled burn, which are used to manage forests and prevent wildfires. Fires under five acres are not shown.

For some fires, you'll see a red outline. This represents the approximate area impacted by the fire. Learn more about boundary maps.

Google also gathers data from:

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
National Meteorological Satellite Center (NMSC)
Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA)

Google Maps wildfires information is approximate. The outline of an actual fire may differ by several miles from its representation on Maps. Check official sources for real-world conditions.

What data do we use to generate fire alerts?

To generate fire alerts, we apply a deep learning model to track the extent of fires from real-time satellite imagery. The model is based on superresolution image fusion of hyperspectral imagery from third-party satellites, which includes:

GOES-16 and GOES-18
GK2A
Himawari-9
Meteosat-9 and Meteosat-11 from EUMETSAT [2023]
Aqua and Terra with MODIS imager
S-NPP, JPSS-1 with VIIRS imager

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