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 Lewiston responded to 172 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $400K 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 44% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
805 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $7.6M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 170 | — | |
| 2022 | 138 | -18.8% | |
| 2023 | 184 | +33.3% | |
| 2024 | 141 | -23.4% | |
| 2025 | 172 | +22.0% |
For the 24 building fires Lewiston departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 287 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 | 50 | 17.4% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 33 | 11.5% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 29 | 10.1% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 17 | 5.9% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 14 | 4.9% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 12 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 10 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 9 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 8 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 8 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 97 | 33.8% |
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 Lewiston mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 78 | 27.2% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 39 | 13.6% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 29 | 10.1% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 24 | 8.4% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 16 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 15 | 5.2% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 13 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 10 | 3.5% | |
| 9 | Molten, hot material | 10 | 3.5% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 8 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 45 | 15.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Lewiston departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 86% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Lewiston sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
11 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 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 720,548 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Natural | 80,212 | 43.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 73,582 | 28.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Natural | 65,200 | 30.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 64,510 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 56,319 | 33.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 52,000 | 34.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 51,000 | 28.4 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 48,567 | 28.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 41,195 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 32,967 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 21,640 | 30.4 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 18,177 | 38.7 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 Idaho cities with population within ±25% of Lewiston. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
4 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Lewiston.
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.