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2025 County Report

Fires in Petroleum County, MT

In 2025, fire departments serving Petroleum County responded to 6 fire and hazmat incidents. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as High.

178 residents FIPS 30069 5 cities · 1 fire depts
Total incidents
6
46 across 5 years
Building fires
2
4 wildland
Property loss
$0
$0 structure · $0 contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Grass fire lead by count. Top five categories make up about 100% of all calls.

6
Total Incidents
Grass fire 4 66.7%
Building fires 2 33.3%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Petroleum County?

Jan peaks. Feb dips.

Jan 2
Feb 0
Mar 0
Apr 0
May 2
Jun 2
Jul 0
Aug 0
Sep 0
Oct 0
Nov 0
Dec 0
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Petroleum County

46 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 10
2022 11
2023 6
2024 13
2025 6
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 2 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
0%
0
Cause undetermined
0%
0
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
100%
1
Under investigation
0%
0
Act of nature (lightning)
0%
0
06 How Petroleum County compares

Petroleum County vs MT vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

33.71
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Petroleum County
33.71
MT avg
7.52
US avg
7.15
11.24
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Petroleum County
11.24
MT avg
0.62
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Petroleum County
0
MT avg
5.2
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Petroleum County

5 cities mapped to FIPS 30069.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Petroleum County

1 departments report from this county.

Winnett VFD
—
FDID 55001 5 incidents
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in MT

Top 10 fire perimeters by acres burned (state-scoped fallback while we build out per-county polygons).

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 Lodgepole Complex 2017 BLM 271,420
2 Derby 2006 USFS 207,237
3 Rice Ridge 2017 USFS 160,001
4 Pine Ridge Complex 2006 BLM 114,655
5 Dunn Mountain 2008 BLM 102,324
6 SartinDraw 2017 USFS 99,713
7 TaylorCreek 2012 USFS 62,148
8 Trail Creek 2021 USFS 62,012
9 Stag 2000 USFS 61,727
10 StormCreek 1988 USFS 58,721

About this data

County-level NFIRS aggregates for 2025, plus 5-year totals across 2021–2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Wildfire risk score (0–100) and Expected Annual Loss come from FEMA's National Risk Index. Drought class is the most recent USDM classification (D0 = abnormally dry through D4 = exceptional drought). Historical fire perimeters are sourced from the NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History.