North Dakota
Fighting the Flames: North Dakota’s historic October wildfires, a mini-documentary
BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – Historic wildfires severely impacted parts of North Dakota throughout October. Here is a look back at what caused them and the impact they had.
The majority of the fires broke out on Saturday, October 5, when a powerful cold front produced 60 to near 80 miles per hour wind gusts with very dry air.
The Bear Den Fire prompted an evacuation for a small portion of the Fort Berthold Reservation and came close to the community of Mandaree. The fire, which was fully contained on October 20, burned about 13,500 acres.
The Elkhorn Fire burned about 10,300 acres across rugged terrain south of Watford City and was contained after 11 days.
Williams County was the hardest hit, where two large fires each traveled approximately 20 miles, crossing Highway 2, and burning almost 90,000 acres, especially impacting the communities of Ray and Tioga.
Many other fires occurred across the state that first weekend of October, and as conditions remained dry, more popped up during the middle of the month. That included fires that burned more than a thousand acres north of Bismarck near Double Ditch and an approximately thousand-acre fire near Medora.
“The combination of a number of factors really led to the extreme severity of these wildfires back in October. A combination of long-term drought, and we had a high wind event on top of that, that not only was a high wind event, but we had gusts exceeding 70 miles per hour. And very low relative humidity combined with all of that, led to the extreme nature of this event,” said Chauncy Schultz, science and operations officer at the Bismarck National Weather Service. “So, we occasionally get high wind events in North Dakota, every year, right? But to actually get them in combination with drought-type conditions and with that really low relative humidity — the relative humidity back on that October day was actually down in the 20, 25-percent range. It’s rare to get relative humidity that low with winds that high in our part of the world just by the nature of how the weather patterns usually set up that drive those high wind events.”
“So, it’s really rare to actually get all of those conditions superimposed on top of each other, which is a good thing that it doesn’t happen very often, but obviously, extremely unfortunate when it does,” said Schultz.
“Fire season can be any time in North Dakota if these conditions align,” said Schultz. “We’ve had very large fires going back a few years in January, we’ve had fires in July and August that are really large as well. We’ve certainly had past falls where we’ve had fire seasons as well, and a lot of it has to do with if we have moisture in that August, September timeframe. If we have moisture there, a lot of times the fuels, the grasses will hold a little bit of that moisture until closer to when we actually get snowfall. This particular fall, of course, we didn’t have the moisture going in, and we had a protracted warm and dry fall — more opportunities to have these wind events on top of those dry, really drought-loaded types of fuels, which can lead to these sort of extreme conditions.”
These fires likely are the worst in North Dakota’s recorded history with more than 110,000 acres being impacted. The only event that comes close happened 25 years ago.
“The closest sort of analog that we would have is actually the Halloween 1999 wildfire outbreak, which had a lot of similarities to this one, including some really large fires in northeast Montana and western North Dakota that exceeded 20,000 acres and even greater than that,” said Schultz. “And that event also had high winds behind a cold front with relatively low relative humidity, and it also followed drought conditions — there were a lot of similarities. I think the difference maker between that event and this one that made this one even worse was that the winds were even a little bit higher. So, back in Halloween ‘99, the wind gusts were in that 60-65 mile per hour range. And with this event, the wind gusts exceeded 70 miles per hour and they stayed that high for a prolonged period of time.”
“Looking back at some of the data, we can see that the Williston area, for example, really hadn’t seen a half inch or more of precipitation in about 100 days leading up to that event,” said Schultz. “If we go back and look at the Halloween 1999 wildfire outbreak, it was very similar. It was around 100 days preceding that event where there had not been a half inch or more of precipitation, really speaking to those drought conditions. But the numbers actually line up very similarly, and we got pretty similar results. This event back in October was the more extreme of the two, but within the general realm, we can look at those patterns and I think that will help us in the future better anticipate hopefully and predict these sorts of things. And then we hope that we can prepare for them on the ground.”
Firefighters, the North Dakota National Guard, and many others came together to battle the blazes. Along the way, remarkable footage of their efforts was captured.
“Recognizing not only the dryness that was going on, but the weather events that were coming in, and how we were, unfortunately, setting ourselves up for potential disaster, which is unfortunately, of course, what happened in this particular case,” said Schultz.
“Speaking from some experience from myself, even though I was not involved with these fires, but being a firefighter in my personal time as well, the extreme nature of this, being able to try to do anything to try to stop these fires is basically impossible,” said Schultz. “So, you’re always for the next road and you’re hoping and praying that the winds go down. And so, it’s the extreme nature of these fires that makes them a safety hazard for all the fire crews as well. And you do your best to try to stop them, but the flames are just moving so fast that you’re really, really focused on protecting structures, protecting lives as best you can until you can sort of catch the fire.”
“The topography certainly makes it a challenge for firefighting, and the firefighters, the professionals even, and all the volunteers, which we have many of across the state, deal with that problem when we get in this sort of terrain,” said Schultz. “We have that in the western part of the state where some of these fires were burning, and that really does make it difficult to get to the fire to get water on it. Ultimately, you need to get water on it or you need to build a fire break, and in a lot of these cases, they had to build fire lines or fire breaks to try to slow down the fires or stop them because of, in part, the terrain, and, of course, the wind on that October 5 day as well.”
“We were seeing 75-foot flame lengths with 60-mile-per-hour winds. Just too extreme to be close to the fire,” said Marle Baker, the fire management officer for the Three Affiliated Tribes and fire chief for Mandaree.
“That’s pretty hard to hear. You just start packing the things up. It was very emotional,” said Vawnita Best, who lives southeast of Watford City.
Remembering Johannes Nicolass Van Eden and Edgar Coppersmith who died during the fires
“My heart needed to do something more to help our community,” said Lyda Jade Spotted Bear, a Mandaree resident. “I’m proud to be from this community. And any little thing that happens, we do, we come together a lot.”
“Extremely humbling to see what this community is doing to help us,” said Baker.
“This is the best of America right here. This is where neighbors still help neighbors,” said North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.
“I know people come together for stuff like this in times of need, but it is shocking to see everybody,” said Kelci Hanson, a Tioga resident who organized a benefit auction in support of families who were most impacted by the Williams County wildfires.
“Our fellow firefighters who dropped everything that they were doing on a Saturday to come to help us save our town,” said Ray Fire Chief Kyle Weyrauch.
“We will get these kinds of conditions again someday, hopefully not anytime soon, but odds are that sometime over the next 50 years, it’s going to happen where we’ll have these sort of weather conditions again,” said Schultz. “So, an awareness of how you can take protective actions to maybe protect your property, raise awareness for those sorts of things is important going forward. We look at the meteorology of these conditions, we collaborate with fire management officials, fire officials within the state, to try and detect things like this earlier so that we can have advanced warnings — Red Flag Warnings, and things like that — that maybe can help identify these. So, we can learn from the unfortunate set of events that happened from this one to hopefully better prepare and better predict for the next one.”
Copyright 2024 KFYR. All rights reserved.
North Dakota
North Dakota Seeks to Recover $778K Surety Bond for Grain Sellers in Hansen-Mueller Case
The surety bond amount would be used to pay farmers and grain sellers who were not paid for grain sold to the company under standard contracts.
The state’s indemnity fund that is owned and operated by the North Dakota State Treasury, is available to reimburse someone who sold grain to a licensee under a credit-sale contract who was not fully compensated under such a contract.
Assessments to the state’s indemnity fund stop when the fund hits $6 million and restart if it drops below $3 million. According to the state, indemnity fund coverage is limited to 80% of a farmer’s unpaid credit-sale contract, up to a maximum payout of $280,000 per insolvency.
North Dakota is the second state to file such a motion, following the Nebraska Public Service Commission.
Also, this week, the Nebraska PSC asked the bankruptcy court for an extension of the Dec. 29, 2025, deadline to notify creditors of its plan to pay farmers in the state using funds from a $1 million surety bond.
Because of the Christmas holiday, the Nebraska PSC said it will be unable to meet the deadline and asked for an extension to Jan. 5, 2026.
Under the Nebraska Grain Dealer Act, dealers are required to post surety bonds to obtain licenses. If payment terms are violated by the company, the Nebraska Public Service Commission can forfeit the bond and distribute it to valid claimants.
Read more on DTN:
“Nebraska to Use $1M Hansen-Mueller Bond,” https://www.dtnpf.com/….
Todd Neeley can be reached at todd.neeley@dtn.com
Follow him on social platform X @DTNeeley
(c) Copyright 2025 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.
North Dakota
A true story of sacrifice: North Dakota film ‘Hazel’s Heart’ begins streaming on major platforms
FARGO – People around the country can now watch a movie based on a heroic North Dakota teenager.
“Hazel’s Heart” was filmed and directed in North Dakota and follows the story of 16-year old Hazel Miner, who sacrificed her life to save her two siblings during a brutal March 1920 blizzard near Center, N.D., in Oliver County.
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North Dakota
Wintering Well Series Back For Another Season At McKenzie Co. Heritage Park & North Dakota Oil Museum
For those who are looking for community interaction, interested in learning an old-fashioned skill, or just simply looking for a way to offset those winter blues, join McKenzie County Heritage Park & North Dakota Oil Museum, 904 2nd Ave. SW, Watford City, for another season of Wintering Well: Slow Down & Savor. Classes begin Jan. 2, 2026, and will continue the first Friday of each month through the winter, 5-7 p.m. CT..
The holiday season is a time where many remember and honor past traditions, though it can also be a time where the usual business of life gets ramped up. In this modern word, we are heavily inundated with outside pressures that tell us to “keep busy and work harder”. Technology can be a constant pull, drawing us away from quiet connection.
But, for many of the people who settled and lived in this region before us, life, the holidays and winter in general carried a different feeling altogether. The winter season was often a time that was looked forward to and folks seemed more willing to go along with nature rather than struggling against it. Winter is a time of rest and renewal. A time for life to slow, and strength and energy to be gathered for spring, summer and fall. With the cold winter outside their doors, people were content to sit by the fire, catch up with friends and family, and engage in pastimes that were both fun and functional.
These Hygge style Wintering Well evenings offer an opportunity to slow down and savor this time of year. Bring a crocheting, knitting or embroidery project or start a new one. Even if you have no experience with these skills, bring a crochet hook and some yarn and other participants can help you get started. In addition to learning new skills and practicing existing ones, there is good conversation to share, new relationships to foster and snacks will be served.
These classes are intended for adults, but tweens who want to learn are welcome to come along with their parents. There is no charge to join, but donations are always welcome.
Take a step back from technology and busy schedules to reconnect with the old-fashioned life at these cozy, creative sessions, and Winter Well this season.
For more information, visit McKenzie County Heritage Park & North Dakota Oil Museum’s Facebook page or call them at 701-842-6434.
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