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 Hardin responded to 24 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Hardin's departments reported 24 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 40 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
202 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $171K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 54 | — | |
| 2022 | 54 | +0.0% | |
| 2023 | 40 | -25.9% | |
| 2024 | 30 | -25.0% | |
| 2025* | 24 | — |
* Well below Hardin's usual volume. That almost always means one or more departments didn't submit a full year to NFIRS, not that fires dropped, so no year-over-year change is shown for it.
For the 1 building fires Hardin departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 135 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 38 | 28.1% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 18 | 13.3% | |
| 3 | Wildland, woods | 13 | 9.6% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 11 | 8.1% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 10 | 7.4% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 8 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 5 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Other | 3 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 3 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 3 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 23 | 17.0% |
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 Hardin mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 63 | 46.7% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 11 | 8.1% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 9 | 6.7% | |
| 4 | Lightning | 9 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 6 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 6 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 4 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 4 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Heat source: other | 3 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 17 | 12.6% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hardin sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 656,875 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Natural | 121,687 | 17.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Natural | 102,379 | 49.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 91,897 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 82,127 | 21.2 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 60,300 | 40.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 52,010 | 26.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 25,490 | 29.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 18,970 | 35.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 10,744 | 23.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 10,095 | 20.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 9,998 | 31.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 7,568 | 30.2 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Montana cities with population within ±25% of Hardin. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Hardin.
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.