Differential absorption lidar (DIAL) has been successfully used to detect vapor material, however limited to detect single vapor using two closely spaced wavelengths. The progress in multiple-wavelength lasers motivates the need for detection and estimation algorithms that have the capability for simultaneous detection of multiple materials. In this paper, a simple and accurate algorithm is presented for simultaneously detecting and estimating multiple vapor materials with multiple-wavelength DIAL, which based on the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) methodology. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated by simulation experiments, the results show that this algorithm can separately identify and quantify vapor material in mixtures and perform quite well.