(C) Daily Montanan
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More than a dozen fires reported in Montana last week [1]
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Date: 2025-07
Fire season has begun to kick up in Montana, with the Department of Natural Resources reporting more than a dozen new incidents in the last week.
According to the state’s wildfire tracker, there have been 886 fires this year and 18 during the last week. Additionally, it noted shortly before 1 p.m. on Monday there had been 14 new fires in the last 24 hours. The days around the Fourth of July holiday are among the busiest for first responders throughout the country.
Nearly all incidents this year in Montana have been relatively small, with state and federal firefighters aggressively fighting them. For example, the Hilger Fire, which was held at 288 acres, was estimated at a cost of $1.5 million during the waning days of the incident response according to data submitted to the National Interagency Fire Center. Successful initial fire attack by the U.S. Forest Service is defined in acres — under 100 acres for a fire burning in forest land, and 300 acres for grassland.
The largest wildfire in Montana, the Wilder Fire, so far this year has burned just 3,451 acres, but crews made significant progress after the fire received rain during the past few days, according to fire officials.
That fire, burning in northeast Fergus County, did not grow from July 5 to July 6, according to an update from the Bureau of Land Management. It is now 30% contained and about 140 personnel were on site Sunday.
Eastern Montana has seen several larger fires during the past week, including one that’s closed Makoshika State Park since July 3. The fire was listed at 169 acres and is 100% contained as of Monday.
Two other fires — the Horseshoe and Flicker fires — were listed at 800 and 806 acres, respectively. The Flicker fire, burning in the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Reserve, was 40% contained while the Horseshoe fire in Garfield County was 10% contained.
Firefighters were able to fully contain the Jericho Mountain fire, which was burning near the town of Rimini. Heavy rainstorms in the Helena area helped tamp down activity on that fire.
Nationally, the National Interagency Fire Center reports 36,156 fires this year have burned nearly 2.1 million acres in the U.S. Last year, 17,362 fires burned 2.8 million acres. Most acreage this year has burned in Alaska, though the Madre Fire in Southern California is more than 80,000 acres and the Trout Fire in New Mexico is nearing 50,000 acres.
Nationally, there are 31 large fire incidents being suppressed — including four in Montana — and 80 others are being managed in ways other than full suppression.
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[1] Url:
https://dailymontanan.com/briefs/more-than-a-dozen-fires-reported-in-montana-last-week-crews-making-progress-on-largest-blaze/
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