Red Flag Warnings Blanket Five Northern Rockies and Plains States
Critical fire weather triggered Red Flag Warnings across Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and the Dakotas on Sept. 10, capping an active season in the region.
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In 2025, fire departments serving Boise responded to 1,158 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $700K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 48% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
6,001 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $64.0M cumulative property loss. 5 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,242 | — | |
| 2022 | 1,175 | -5.4% | |
| 2023 | 1,153 | -1.9% | |
| 2024 | 1,273 | +10.4% | |
| 2025 | 1,158 | -9.0% |
For the 95 building fires Boise departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,500 building fires investigators classified across 2021–2025. The room or location where ignition occurred — kitchens, bedrooms, exterior, vehicle areas — tells you where to focus prevention.
| # | Area of origin | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 203 | 13.5% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 181 | 12.1% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 149 | 9.9% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 124 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 74 | 4.9% | |
| 6 | Other | 67 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 67 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 64 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 44 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 43 | 2.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 484 | 32.3% |
NFIRS Heat Source (HEAT_SOURC) — the physical thing that started it. Spark or ember from operating equipment, an open flame, smoking materials, or hot embers from a fireplace are the leading culprits nationwide. Here's the Boise mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 507 | 33.8% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 135 | 9.0% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 122 | 8.1% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 104 | 6.9% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 99 | 6.6% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 77 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 60 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Fireworks | 50 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 45 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Heat source: other | 42 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 259 | 17.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Boise departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 30% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $700,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $600,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $500,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Boise sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
237 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 19 | |
| 30-39 | 66 | |
| 40-49 | 81 | |
| 50-59 | 43 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 3 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,614,041 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Natural | 283,180 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 188,404 | 33.6 mi | |
| 1992 | Natural | 177,544 | 28.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 146,832 | 43.9 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 146,400 | 32.6 mi | |
| 2013 | Natural | 135,231 | 34.7 mi | |
| 2013 | Natural | 129,730 | 40.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 54,350 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2013 | Natural | 46,444 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 42,543 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 31,316 | 37.7 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 30,655 | 16.2 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
5 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Boise.
A 30-minute weekend can cut your home's exposure substantially. These four checklists are a good starting point.
Numbers reflect incidents reported by participating fire departments to the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) Public Data Release for calendar year 2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Per-capita comparisons use 2023 ACS population estimates. Wildland fire data complements NFIRS with NIFC and USFS perimeters. Active-fire counts come from a dated NIFC snapshot, not a live feed.