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 Sandpoint responded to 100 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $170K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Sandpoint's departments reported 100 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 182 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Authorized controlled burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 50% of all calls.
Oct peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
912 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $7.2M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 249 | — | |
| 2022 | 172 | -30.9% | |
| 2023 | 213 | +23.8% | |
| 2024 | 178 | -16.4% | |
| 2025* | 100 | — |
* Well below Sandpoint'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 4 building fires Sandpoint departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 265 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 | Outside area, other | 47 | 17.7% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 41 | 15.5% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 22 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Other | 20 | 7.5% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 18 | 6.8% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 14 | 5.3% | |
| 7 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 12 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Structural area, other | 11 | 4.2% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 8 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 8 | 3.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 64 | 24.2% |
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 Sandpoint mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 118 | 44.5% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 26 | 9.8% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 16 | 6.0% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 16 | 6.0% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 15 | 5.7% | |
| 6 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 13 | 4.9% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 11 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 8 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 8 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 5 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 29 | 10.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Sandpoint departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $170,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $3,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $1,000 | Chimney or flue fire, confined to chimney or flue | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $500 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $1 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Sandpoint sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
7 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 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 131,613 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Natural | 20,032 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 12,764 | 28.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 8,967 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 7,871 | 17.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 7,700 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 6,675 | 43.2 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 5,897 | 41.4 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 5,850 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 5,298 | 42.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 4,980 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 4,975 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 4,966 | 34.4 mi |
Top 8 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 Sandpoint. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Sandpoint.
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.