Map: Track the wildfires burning across the U.S.

In firefighting, containment is the process of creating a barrier around a fire — with soil, rocks or burnt fuels — in order to keep it from spreading to anything else flammable. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, a fire might still be burning even when it is 100% contained, but at that point the local firefighting agency is able to manage the blaze without assistance from national resources.