Keeping in mind that evolution of wildfires is somewhat unpredictable, you can see the evolution over the last ~48 hours if you go to GeoMAC, zoom to regional level, select "Data Layers", then "Satellite Fire Detection", then "HMS Fire Detection", you will see the "current" fire marked red, prior 24 hours yellow, prior 48 hours, grey. Similar color coding applies to the other satellite data layers.

However, I would think that prediction of where the fire wants to go would be of extreme interest to incident commanders, so I am a bit surprised we don't see a GIS approach to this, factoring in weather, topography, and fuel.

From WildFireToday.com:

10:00 PM PST Nov 10 2018: snapshot of the Woolsey Fire
12:04 PM PST Nov 9, 2018: snapshot of the Woolsey Fire

On GeoMAC, there is a legend below the map saying what the epoch of the data is supposed to be. As I type this, for the Woolsey fire, it says:

"Thermal MODIS 2018-11-11 1514 (MDT); VIIRS 2018-11-11 1104 (MDT); HMS 2018-11-11 900 (GMT); Fire Perimeters 2018-11-11; Situation Reports 2018-11-11 1944 UTC"

I don't know if those are "last update times" or "data was true at" times.

The currency of the satellite fire data is somewhat predictable, since the satellite passes are published. For the satellite fire data displayed on GeoMac, here's what GeoMAC has to say, followed by my thoughts:

MODIS

"This thermal data is collected twice a day, at 2:00 PM EST and again at 12:00 AM EST and are then processed and merged into a single map, which is available by 3:00 AM EST." {My thoughts: the example above suggests more timely processing, since at 14:41 PST the map says it has MODIS data from 13:14 PST, shich should be the MODIS pass from around 13:00 PST. The MODIS satellites pass overhead 4x per day, around 10:30 AM/PM and 1:30 AM/PM (plus or minus an hour).[1],

VIIRS IBAND

"It provides data from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensor aboard the joint NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) satellite. The 375 m data complements MODIS fire detections; they both show good agreement in hotspot detection but the improved spatial resolution of the 375 m data provides a greater response over fires of relatively small areas and provides improved mapping of large fire perimeters. The 375 m data also has improved nighttime performance. Consequently, these data are well suited for use in support of fire management (e.g., near real-time alert systems), ... The VIIRS IBAND layer is updated every two hours. However, there may be gaps in daily coverage. If we have received no new data, the "expired" layers are not replaced. The layer is replaced as soon as we receive an updated file." { Updates every 2 hours are far better than once every 24, but this instrument is only on the Suomi-NPP satellite. You can find the NPP Orbit Track online, but the passes are basically 1:15 AM and 1:15 PM, plus or minus an hour.


Currently, the best "one-stop shop" for fire maps seems to be GeoMAC .

The traditional "goto" site for wildfires, InciWeb, underwent an update this March that made it harder to find information on a particular fire. However, if you go to their LINKS section,there's lots of good stuff there. In particular, it lists the regional coordination centers. The Southern California Geographic Area Coordination Center links to the "Current Fire Information" at Cal Fire which links in turn to the Woolsey Fire Incident Report

The GeoMAC online fire viewer from USGS is pretty good, and lets you isolate fire detection from four different satellite systems. It also has a button (top right) for optimized viewing on mobile devices.

[1] Details:
The "truth time" of the MODIS satellite data will depend on when the satellites with the MODIS sensor (Terra and Aqua) pass over the fire scene. From Wikipedia - Terra and Aqua are "sun synchronous", meaning they pass over any ground point twice per day, and any equatorial point at the same solar time, quantized by the fact that there are only about a dozen orbits per day, so the closest pass may be east or west of you - your nearest pass will be about +/- 1 hour of the "ideal" time. Terra passes over the equator at 10:30 PM descending, so about 10:20 PM over Woolsey. The prior pass is 10:30 AM ascending, or 10:39 AM over Woolsey. Aqua crosses around 1:30 AM/PM. For more detail, see: Terra Track Aqua Track