How to obtain fire information in the Black Hills

Fire information in the Black Hills area can be obtained from several sources. Public Information Officers (PIO’s) utilize a variety of tools to share information about the location, size, resources responding, and status of fires.  

Information on all wildfire activity in the Black Hills area is placed on the Great Plains BlogSpot http://gpfireinfo.blogspot.com/.  People can subscribe to the blog, free of charge, and receive an email once a day, around 3:00 pm MST, on fires entered on the blog that day. 

Fires on the BlogSpot are shared on the Great Plains Fire Twitter account @GPFireInfo. The public can follow Great Plains Fire on their Twitter account and elect to receive real-time notifications of fires.     

People wishing to receive a text message on wildfires in the Black Hills area can subscribe free of charge by texting ‘GPFIRE’ to 85511.  Notification texts are sent to subscribers when there is significant wildfire activity, including wildland fires and prescribed fires.

A wildfire telephone hotline is available to the public. People can call (605) 923-8868 and speak to a PIO about wildfires and other fire related matters in the Great Plains Dispatch area.

The Great Plains Interagency Dispatch Center (GPC) posts information about all fires in their dispatch zone on the Wildcad system http://www.wildcad.net/WCSD-GPC.htm.  Additionally, the GPC website https://gacc.nifc.gov/rmcc/dispatch_centers/r2gpc/index.htm has a wealth of information available to the public.

Fire danger for the Black Hills and Prairie areas can be found at https://gacc.nifc.gov/rmcc/dispatch_centers/r2gpc/fuels.htm.  Local, State, and Federal agencies have combined fire restriction information and can be found at http://www.blackhillsfirerestrictions.com. 

“All of these tools are readily available to the public and we encourage people to use them to stay informed on fire in the Black Hills area,” said Scott Jacobson, Public Affairs Officer, Black Hills National Forest.