LATEST: Estimated Costs to Fight Montana’s Biggest Wildfires Summer 2024

With a mild beginning to summer in Western Montana, multiple fires across the state have signaled that the state is now in "fire season." The Lolo National Forest Service announced on July 16 that they would be increasing the fire danger to extreme for forest lands, but they also share another statistic.

"To date this year, firefighters on the Lol National Forest have responded to 33 fires: 1 lighting-caused and 32 human cause."

32 human-caused fires in Lolo National Forest is an alarming statistic. Another concerning statistic is the estimated costs of fighting wildland fires not only in Western Montana but across the entire state.

READ MORE: Miller Peak Fire - Updates and Information

We looked at information from mtfireinfo.org to determine the estimated costs associated with Montana's biggest wildland fires. Here are the top fires being tracked:

• Deadman
• Horse Gulch
• Anderson
• Prairie
• Four Mile
• Miller Peak
• Mcghee
• Hackley
• Shank Basin

However, the map shows 69 active fires across the state, with 10 starting in the last 24 hours. This information changes frequently--be advised that information may have changed since publishing this story. We'll update this story as regularly as we can. Here's a look at the costs associated with those same fires:

You'll notice that some of the fires listed above have a $0 amount, or no estimated cost.  It's possible that with quickly changing information data for those fires haven't been updated yet.

Taking the reported estimates into account, the current total estimated cost for Montana's largest fires is:

$12,608,879

This does not include costs for fires outside the nine listed above.

For the latest information about wildfires in Montana download our station app.