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 across Wyoming responded to 2,715 fire and hazmat incidents — including the Clover Mist wildfire that burned 341,292 acres in 1988.
Wyoming ranks #10 in cumulative acres burned in the NIFC perimeter atlas. Hover any state to compare; click to drill in.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Top five categories cover roughly 45% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Nov dips. (Latest year: 2025.)
5-year cumulative seasonality smooths out single-year noise. Jul peaks across the window; Nov dips.
20,905 incidents from 2021 through 2025 across all reporting departments.
| Year | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 4,915 | |
| 2022 | 4,679 | |
| 2023 | 4,224 | |
| 2024 | 4,372 | |
| 2025 | 2,715 |
For the 266 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.
Combined NFIRS + FPA-FOD totals across the available reporting window. Click a cause to see how it plays out nationwide.
| # | Cause | Incidents | FOD vs NFIRS | Acres | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Natural (lightning) | 8,469 | 7,994 / 475 | 2,275,820 | |
| 2 | Undetermined / missing | 6,197 | 4,905 / 1,292 | 571,813 | |
| 3 | Equipment & vehicle use | 2,226 | 915 / 1,311 | 129,167 | |
| 4 | Debris & open burning | 1,887 | 1,887 / 0 | 50,023 | |
| 5 | Recreation & ceremony | 1,631 | 1,631 / 0 | 128,976 | |
| 6 | Fireworks | 770 | 770 / 0 | 4,801 | |
| 7 | Arson / incendiarism | 754 | 167 / 587 | 8,199 | |
| 8 | Railroad operations | 555 | 555 / 0 | 54,405 | |
| 9 | Power generation / utility | 427 | 427 / 0 | 105,078 | |
| 10 | Smoking | 383 | 383 / 0 | 5,409 | |
| 11 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 319 | 319 / 0 | 859 | |
| 12 | Other causes | 60 | 27 / 33 | 240 |
Topical groupings of NFIRS incident types — building, cooking, electrical, vehicle, and more. Each links to its national rollup.
| # | Topic | Incidents | Loss | Deaths | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Outdoor fires | 5,714 | $960K | 2 | |
| 2 | Gas leaks | 4,919 | $226K | 0 | |
| 3 | Wildland fires | 4,531 | $919K | 1 | |
| 4 | Building fires | 3,388 | $39.4M | 27 | |
| 5 | Vehicle fires | 2,053 | $21.5M | 4 | |
| 6 | Electrical / wiring | 1,529 | $10K | 0 | |
| 7 | Rubbish / refuse | 1,007 | $77K | 1 | |
| 8 | Cooking-related | 626 | $26K | 0 | |
| 9 | Arson | 341 | $313K | 0 |
Largest single-incident property losses statewide in 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 69% of Wyoming's total.
| # | Property loss | City | Type | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $7,000,000 | Sheridan | Building fires | Catastrophic |
| 2 | $1,000,000 | Cody | Outside storage fire | Major |
| 3 | $800,000 | Freedom | Building fires | Major |
| 4 | $800,000 | Thayne | Building fires | Major |
| 5 | $600,000 | Cody | Building fires | Major |
| 6 | $350,000 | Douglas | Building fires | Major |
| 7 | $305,000 | Burns | Building fires | Major |
| 8 | $275,000 | Rock River | Building fires | Major |
| 9 | $250,000 | Laramie | Building fires | Major |
| 10 | $250,000 | Kaycee | Building fires | Major |
Per-capita rates let us compare Wyoming apples-to-apples to the national average.
12 largest reporting cities by population.
Top 10 counties by reported NFIRS incidents in 2025.
| # | County | Incidents | Population |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Natrona County | 529 | 72,621 |
| 2 | Laramie County | 296 | 83,518 |
| 3 | Albany County | 202 | 32,554 |
| 4 | Campbell County | 177 | 36,057 |
| 5 | Park County | 159 | 17,630 |
| 6 | Sweetwater County | 149 | 40,857 |
| 7 | Sheridan County | 136 | 23,290 |
| 8 | Fremont County | 131 | 25,996 |
| 9 | Converse County | 110 | 9,904 |
| 10 | Washakie County | 109 | 5,048 |
Top 2 counties by NFIRS incidents per 1,000 residents (population ≥ 50,000). Surfaces signal beyond the mega-counties.
| # | County | Inc / 1k | Incidents | Population | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Natrona County | 7.28 | 529 | 72,621 | |
| 2 | Laramie County | 3.54 | 296 | 83,518 |
By incident count in 2025.
By acres burned. Sourced from the NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History.
| # | Name | Year | Agency | Acres |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clover Mist | 1988 | USFS | 341,291 |
| 2 | CLOVERMIST | 1988 | NPS | 232,190 |
| 3 | Hellroaring | 1988 | USFS | 206,358 |
| 4 | Storm Creek | 1988 | USFS | 206,056 |
| 5 | East Troublesome | 2020 | USFS | 193,693 |
| 6 | Mullen | 2020 | USFS | 176,787 |
| 7 | HUCK | 1988 | NPS | 120,297 |
| 8 | Elk | 2024 | USFS | 98,351 |
| 9 | Pack Trail | 2024 | USFS | 89,929 |
| 10 | MINK | 1988 | NPS | 88,369 |
1258 perimeters and 3,405,785 acres recorded since 1900.
| Decade | Fires | Acres | Activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1910s | 1 | 855 | |
| 1930s | 5 | 17,576 | |
| 1940s | 1 | 161 | |
| 1950s | 5 | 11,952 | |
| 1960s | 2 | 901 | |
| 1970s | 16 | 19,530 | |
| 1980s | 27 | 1,448,735 | |
| 1990s | 14 | 12,871 | |
| 2000s | 73 | 319,698 | |
| 2010s | 664 | 851,165 | |
| 2020s | 450 | 722,341 |
FPA-FOD ignitions by decade, broken down by cause category. Each row sums to the decade's total; the bars show the share each cause contributed.
| Decade | Total fires | Share by cause |
|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 4,194 | |
| 2000s | 5,846 | |
| 2010s | 8,345 | |
| 2020s | 1,624 |
FPA-FOD ignitions by month, all years on record. Distinct from NFIRS — captures unreported wildlands across rural and remote terrain. 20,009 ignitions total.
163 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 5-year window. Age and gender are coarse-binned for privacy.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 5 | |
| 10-19 | 19 | |
| 20-29 | 25 | |
| 30-39 | 26 | |
| 40-49 | 33 | |
| 50-59 | 21 | |
| 60-69 | 14 | |
| 70-79 | 11 | |
| 80+ | 9 |
State totals reflect incidents reported by fire departments to NFIRS for 2025. The 5-year totals span 2021 through 2025. Wildfire perimeters and decade-by-decade counts are sourced from the NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History service. NFIRS reporting is voluntary, so totals are a strong indicator rather than a complete census.