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 Helena responded to 130 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 55% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,041 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $369K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 417 | — | |
| 2022 | 256 | -38.6% | |
| 2023* | 119 | — | |
| 2024* | 119 | — | |
| 2025 | 130 | — |
* Well below Helena'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 17 building fires Helena departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 196 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 | 24 | 12.2% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 19 | 9.7% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 14 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 13 | 6.6% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 12 | 6.1% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 12 | 6.1% | |
| 7 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 10 | 5.1% | |
| 8 | Undetermined | 10 | 5.1% | |
| 9 | Other | 8 | 4.1% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 8 | 4.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 66 | 33.7% |
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 Helena mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 71 | 36.2% | |
| 2 | Fireworks | 19 | 9.7% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 15 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 14 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 11 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 8 | 4.1% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 7 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 6 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 6 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 34 | 17.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Helena departments in 2025. These 6 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $5,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $500 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $500 | Fuel burner/boiler malfunction, fire confined | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100 | Electrical wiring/equipment problem, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Helena sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
8 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 320,596 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Equipment and vehicle use | 81,220 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 46,298 | 20.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 37,405 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 30,000 | 16.3 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 29,253 | 44.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Recreation and ceremony | 15,000 | 11.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 12,457 | 19.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 10,791 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 8,721 | 46.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 7,209 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Firearms and explosives use | 5,019 | 11.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,409 | 25.7 mi |
Top 6 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 Helena. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
5 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Helena.
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.