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 Missoula responded to 199 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Missoula's departments reported 199 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 519 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 61% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,594 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $6.5M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 737 | — | |
| 2022 | 703 | -4.6% | |
| 2023 | 664 | -5.5% | |
| 2024* | 291 | — | |
| 2025* | 199 | — |
* Well below Missoula'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 6 building fires Missoula departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 551 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 | Undetermined | 105 | 19.1% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 65 | 11.8% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 59 | 10.7% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 53 | 9.6% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 40 | 7.3% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 26 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 18 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 15 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Wildland, woods | 15 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 12 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 143 | 26.0% |
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 Missoula mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 236 | 42.8% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 44 | 8.0% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 37 | 6.7% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 35 | 6.4% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 35 | 6.4% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 16 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 14 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 13 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 13 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 12 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 96 | 17.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Missoula departments in 2025. These 7 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $5,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $1,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $1,000 | Cultivated grain or crop fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Missoula sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
6 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 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 723,779 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Natural | 147,529 | 37.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 53,902 | 18.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 42,694 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 36,388 | 25.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 36,045 | 38.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 34,552 | 33.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 33,948 | 34.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 30,580 | 21.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 26,310 | 41.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 25,873 | 38.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 25,680 | 19.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 25,202 | 13.6 mi |
Top 7 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 Missoula. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Missoula.
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.