In the summer of 1910, fire tore through northern Idaho and western Montana, ushering in an era of fire prevention. Over the years, Idaho and its people have remained central contributors to the development of better fire management methods. Boise is home to the National Interagency Fire Center, which helps coordinate fire management activities in the United States.

This page provides links to online resources that can help you protect your home, learn about current and historic fires, learn about fire management, and read personal stories from the front lines of fire management.

Fire Resources

Idaho Fire Info – This site provides links to a variety of informative and educational resources all in one place.
Idaho Firewise – Firewise is a project of the National Fire Protection Association in partnership with agencies and organizations. They provide a variety of tools to help people protect their homes from fire.
State Fire Marshal
Fire Management, Idaho Department of Lands
University of Idaho Extension, Wildfire information

Lee, Russell, photographer. Detail of grass fire. Boise County, Idaho. Boise County Boise County. Idaho United States, 1941. June. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017789987/.

Wildland Fire Centers

National Interagency Fire Center – The National Interagency Fire Center operates out of Boise, Idaho. Its purpose is to help agencies coordinate wildland firefighting. Participating agencies include the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the National Weather Service, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Interior Business Center, the U.S. Fire Administration, and the National Association of State Foresters.

Regional Centers

The National Wildfire Coordinating Group – This group is made up of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the Intertribal Timber Council, the National Association of State Foresters, the National Park Service, and the United States Fire Administration.

“Taken on August 10th, 2013 by the Landsat-8 satellite, this image shows the active fire areas along with burn scars for the McCan and Beaver Creek Complex fires.”
NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS). https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/content/detailed-satellite-imagery-idaho-wildfires.

Wildland Fire Mapping

Idaho Fire Map, Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
USDA Forest Service Active Fire Mapping Program.
GeoMAC Wildfire Viewer, Geospatial Multi-Agency Coordination
InciWeb (Incident Information System)
Federal Wildland Fire Occurrence Website – This site includes information from 1980 through 2016 from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and the U.S. Forest Service. Download data or view in a map.
Idaho Fire Info
National Fire Situational Awareness Wildfire Maps, National Interagency Fire Center
Federal Fire Occurrence Map Viewer

Wildland Fire Training and Research

Experimental Forests and Ranges, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Forest and Rangelands, United States Department of the Interior and the United States Department of Agriculture.
FRAMES (Fire Research and Management Exchange System)
Idaho Training Oversight Committee (ITOC)
LANDFIRE – From the site: “LANDFIRE (LF), Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools, is a shared program between the wildland fire management programs of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service and U.S. Department of the Interior, providing landscape scale geo-spatial products to support cross-boundary planning, management, and operations.”
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Engineering Laboratory, Fire Division publications.
Treesearch, United States Department of Agriculture
Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center – This organization helps firefighters share information to help improve firefighting safety.

One orbit, or about 90 minutes, after passing over Hurricane Isaac in the Gulf of Mexico on August 28th, the Suomi NPP satellite passed over the Western U.S., capturing imagery of the wildfires that have been ravaging California, Oregon, and Idaho for weeks.
NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS). https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/content/wildfires-continuing-ravage-western-us.

Fire Data

Wildland Fire Data, National Interagency Fire Center
Fire in Idaho/State Fire Marshal Annual Reports. Office of the State Fire Marshal.
Federal Wildland Fire Occurrence Website – This site includes information from 1980 through 2016 from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and the U.S. Forest Service. Download data or view in a map.
United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, State and Private Forestry Fire and Aviation Management staff. 1991-1997 wildland fire statistics. Microfiche. Washington, D.C.: The Service, 1998.
Facts + Statistics: Wildfires, Insurance Information Institute.
U.S. Fire Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Research Library and Archives
Federal Fire Occurrence Map Viewer

Fires in Montana and Idaho. August 18, 2013. NASA Earth Observatory.
“Taken with a short lens (50 millimeters), this west-looking image from the International Space Station includes much of forested central Idaho. The oblique image highlights part of the largest single wilderness area in the contiguous United States, the Frank Church–River of No Return Wilderness.” https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/81923/fires-in-montana-and-idaho.

Photographs

1910 Fire Archives. Flickr. Forest Service Northern Region
Fire and Smoke, NASA
Fire Imagery – Geospatial Technology and Applications Center – Look up satellite imagery by date
NASA Earth Observatory
Digital Photo Series, Fire and Environmental Research Application Team

Mullan Idaho Fire Department, Decoration Day. 1912 July 20. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2006684468/.

Fire Departments

State Fire Marshal, Idaho Department of Insurance
Fire Department Registry, U.S. Fire Administration Data, Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Many fire departments post department histories on their web page. A few have published print versions.

Bergemann, Rick D.; edited by Lara Bergemann Hooper. History of Nampa’s fire department: 1891-1999. Nampa, Idaho: Rick Bergemann, 2000. 1st ed.
Hart, Arthur A. Fighting fire on the frontier. Boise, Idaho: Boise Fire Department Association, 1976.
Boise Fire Department’s 100 years celebration: May 24-27, 2002. United States: [publisher not identified], 2003.

Fire Lookouts

Worldwide Lookout Library. Forest Fire Lookout Association. http://www.firelookout.org/worldwide-lookout-library.html. Accessed December 26, 2018.
Beaty, Jeanne Kellar. Lookout wife. New York : Random House, 1953.
Coffman, Harold E. This is our forest: a collection of stories from a lookout smokechaser who worked in the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana and Idaho. Sun City, Arizona (10128 Shasta Drive, Sun City, AZ 85351): HalMar Publications, 2000.
Holm, Richard H. Points of prominence: fire lookouts of the Payette National Forest. United States: [publisher not identified], 2010.
Kresek, Ray. Fire lookouts of the Northwest. Fairfield, Washington: Ye Galleon Press, 1984, 1985.
Kresek, Ray. Fire lookouts of the Northwest. Spokane, Washington: Historic Lookout Project, 1998. 3rd rev. ed.
Maughan, Jackie Johnson, editor. Go tell it on the mountain. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 1996. 1st ed.
Reichert, Bruce; John Crancer. Eyes of the Forest: Idaho’s Fire Lookouts: The history and current uses of forest fire lookouts throughout Idaho. Idaho Public Television, 2011.
Scheese, Don; foreword by Wayne Franklin. Mountains of memory: a fire lookout’s life in the River of No Return Wilderness. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2001.
Yahr, Warren. Smokechaser. Moscow, Idaho: University of Idaho Press, 1995.

Results of wind and fire in heavy timber along Rainy Creek.
R.H. McKay. Aftermath of the 1910 Fires 99-600. Forest Service Northern Region. Lolo National Forest, MT, 1910. https://www.flickr.com/photos/fsnorthernregion/4930315150/in/album-72157624814120716/

Books

Agee, James K. Fire ecology of Pacific Northwest forests. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1993.
And there we were: memoirs from Boise, Idaho [City], and McCall smokejumpers. Idaho: Fire Dog Press, 2003. 60th anniversary ed., 1943-2003.
Anderson, Hal E. Sundance Fire: an analysis of fire phenomena. Ogden, Utah: Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1968.
Barkley, Yvonne C. After the burn: assessing and managing your forestland after a wildlife. University of Idaho Extension Station bulletin 76. Moscow, Idaho: University of Idaho Extension, 2006.
Beaty, Jeanne Kellar. Lookout wife. New York : Random House, 1953.
Barrett, S.W.; Arno, S.F.; Menakis, J.P. Fire episodes in the Inland Northwest (1540–1940) based on fire history data. General Technical Report INT-370. Ogden, UT: USDA Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station, 1997. https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_int/int_gtr370.pdf. Accessed December 28, 2018.
Boyd, Robert, editor. Indians, fire, and the land in the Pacific Northwest. Corvallis, Or. : Oregon State University Press, 1999. 1st ed.
Carrier, Jim, Jeff Henry and Ted Wood, photographers. Summer of fire. Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith, 1989. 1st ed.
Carey, Alan; Sandy Carey. Yellowstone’s red summer. Flagstaff, AZ: Northland Pub., 1989. 1st ed.
Carrier, Jim. Summer of fire. Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith, 1989. 1st ed.
Coffman, Harold E. This is our forest: a collection of stories from a lookout smokechaser who worked in the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana and Idaho. Sun City, Arizona (10128 Shasta Drive, Sun City, AZ 85351): HalMar Publications, 2000.
Cohen, Stan; Don Miller. The big burn: the Northwest’s forest fire of 1910. Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories Pub. Co., 1978.
Curtis, Albert B. White pines and fires: cooperative forestry in Idaho. Moscow, Idaho: University Press of Idaho, 1983.
Egan, Timothy. The big burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the fire that saved America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009.
Ekey, Robert, and the staff of the Billings Gazette. Yellowstone on fire! Billings, MT: Billings Gazette; Helena, MT: Distributed by Falcon Press, 1989.
Filler, Bud. Two-man stick: memoirs of a smokejumper. Boise, Idaho: Burning Mountain Press, 1999. 1st ed.
Flood, Reneé Sansom, editor. Under Fire: The West is Burning. Billings, Montana: Fenske Companies, 2001.
Fuller, Margaret. Forest fires: an introduction to wildland fire behavior, management, firefighting, and prevention. New York: Wiley, 1991.
Holm, Richard H. Points of prominence: fire lookouts of the Payette National Forest. United States: [publisher not identified], 2010.
Hult, Ruby El. Northwest disaster: avalanche and fire. Portland, Oregon: Binfords & Mort, 1960.
Junger, Sebastian. Fire. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2001. 1st ed.
Kulka, Joe, illustrator. Smokey Bear story = La historia del oso Smokey. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 2009.
Leusch, Mariah, and Rose Davis. The Great 1910 Fires of Idaho and Montana: Day Trip Guide to Historic Sites in Idaho and Montana. United States Department of Agriculture. Forest Service, Northern Region. 1023-2M09-MTDC. June 2010. https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5343877.pdf. Accessed October 26, 2022.
Mathes, Jerry D., II. Ahead of the flaming front: a life on fire. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Press, 2013.
Maughan, Jackie Johnson, editor. Go Tell It on the Mountain. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 1996. 1st ed.
McMillan, Mike. Wildfire west: wildland firefighting pictorial. Volume one. United States: Spotfire Images Press, 2015.
Pyne, Stephen J. The Northern Rockies: a fire survey. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press, 2016.
Pyne, Stephen J. Year of the fires: the story of the great fires of 1910. New York, N.Y.: Viking, 2001.
Reichert, Bruce, producer; Jody Lee, producer; Pat Metzler, editor. Outdoor Idaho. [Wild fire]. Idaho Public Television. Boise, Idaho: Idaho Public Television, 2008.
Scheese, Don. Mountains of memory: a fire lookout’s life in the River of No Return Wilderness. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2001.
Sibley, George. Ordeal by fire. Gale Force Films; Sanders County Historical Society and the Museum of North Idaho. Florida: Gale Force Films, 2010.
Simpson, Ross W. The fires of ’88: Yellowstone Park & Montana in flames. Helena, Montana: American Geographic Pub.: Montana Magazine, 1989.
Smokejumping/Forest Fire Fighting in Idaho. Oral History Project. Idaho Historical Society.
Thoele, Michael. Fire line: the summer battles of the West. Golden, Colorado: Fulcrum Pub., 1995.
United States Forest Service, Northern Region. When the mountains roared: stories of the 1910 fires. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Region, 2010.
Walters, Ben. Fire crew: stories from the fireline. Idaho Falls, Idaho: Ben Walters, 2011.
Yahr, Warren. Smokechaser. Moscow, Idaho: University of Idaho Press, 1995.

Search for Forest Service Reports in the National Agricultural Library (AGRICOLA) from the United States Department of Agriculture. Some reports are available online. Search for additional federal government publications through the Catalog of Government Publications, or search both resources using MetaLib.

Videos

Ives, Stephen, writer and director. American Experience: The Big Burn. Arlington, Virginia: PBS Distribution, 2014. – Watch online at https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/burn/. Accessed March 12, 2019.
Reichert, Bruce; John Crancer. Eyes of the Forest: Idaho’s Fire Lookouts: The history and current uses of forest fire lookouts throughout Idaho. Idaho Public Television, 2011.
Sibley, George; Gale Force Films; Sanders County Historical Society;Museum of North Idaho. Ordeal by Fire. Florida: Gale Force Films, 2010.

“The pit in Big Creek where firefighters died on the night of August 20.”
J.B. Halm. Forest Service Northern Region. 99-636 St. Joe National Forest, ID, 1910. Aftermath of the 1910 Fires. https://www.flickr.com/photos/fsnorthernregion/4929747295/in/album-72157624814120716/

Articles

Barrett, Stephen W. “Fire History Along the Ancient Lolo Trail.” Fire Management Today. Summer 2000, Vol. 60 Issue 3, page 21 (8 pages).

The Fall 2001 issue of Idaho Yesterdays is dedicated to the topic of fire in Idaho. Articles are as follows:

Reid, Kenneth C. “The Prehistory of Fire in the Idaho Rockies.” Idaho Yesterdays. Issue 45 number 3. Fall 2001. Pages 3 through 13.
“National Forest Fire Damage in Montana and Northern Idaho during 1910.” Idaho Yesterdays. Issue 45 number 3. Fall 2001. Pages 14 and 15.
Weigle, W. G. “The Great Idaho Fire of 1910.” Idaho Yesterdays. Issue 45 number 3. Fall 2001. Pages 16 through 21.
Akenson, Jim; Holly Akenson. “From the Frying Pan into the Fire: August 2000.” Idaho Yesterdays. Issue 45 number 3. Fall 2001. Pages 22 through 25.
Davis, Mary Anne. “’Sprinklers are Broken and the Cows are in the Townsite Drinking Out of Folda-Tanks’”. Idaho Yesterdays. Issue 45 number 3. Fall 2001. Pages 26 through 29.
Renk, Nancy F. “Thoughts on the Maloney Creek Fire.” Idaho Yesterdays. Issue 45 number 3. Fall 2001. Pages 30 through 35.

Search for additional Idaho Yesterdays articles using the Idaho Yesterdays Index provided by the North Idaho College Molstead Library.

This page posted by Ronnie Joiner on March 11, 2019.