Rollins Fire · Partnership brief

A real-world test site for wildfire technology

Rollins Fire is a volunteer fire district on Flathead Lake in Montana. We have grown fast, put modern technology in our crew's hands, and want to help bring the next generation of wildfire tools out of the lab and onto real ground.

West shore, Flathead Lake, Montana US-93 corridor Next to the Flathead Reservation
4×growth in active volunteers since 2010, from 5 to more than 20
$1.14Mraised for capital projects in 2024 and 2025
~550local households that gave toward it
9trucks and engines in service
Our story

Four neighbors and a used fire truck, sixty years later

  1. 1962

    Founded by four community members with a used fire truck

  2. 1989

    Recognized as a fire district by Lake County

  3. 1995

    Moves to its Highway 93 property

  4. 2010

    5 active volunteers

  5. 2024–25

    Community raises about $1.14M for capital projects

  6. 2026

    New station dedicated, built and donated by the Rollins Fire Foundation. More than 20 volunteers.

District cross-section: lake, highway, homes, timbered slope, ridge Flathead Lake · 2,893 ft US-93 Homes in the trees Steep timber Ridgeline
The ground

Lakeshore to ridgeline in a few miles

  • Steep, timbered slopes with homes built into them. This is the wildland-urban interface where fires start small and run uphill fast.
  • A real fire season every year, with fire weather that changes by the hour on the lake.
  • A volunteer crew covering long distances, where minutes of early warning change the outcome.
  • Private land available for testing through a local landowner and donor.
Crew technology

A small department already running modern crew tools

Over the last two years our volunteer technology lead has replaced paper and phone trees with software the crew uses every day.

In use

Crew app

Standard operating procedures and apparatus reference on every member's phone. It works without a signal and reads instructions aloud, so hands stay free on scene.

Field testing

Radio from the phone

Members can talk on the department radio system from the app, which extends coverage where handhelds struggle.

In use

Training records

A digital training sign-in replaces the paper sheet and produces the year-end record used for state pension credit.

In use

Public fire danger and giving

The daily fire danger rating set in the app updates the public website, which also takes community donations online.

The crew app is developed and owned by our technology lead. This page shows what it does, not how it works. Technical details are available under a mutual NDA.

Working together

What we bring and what we are looking for

We bring

  • Real terrain and a real fire season, not a test range
  • A trained crew that is willing to try new tools and give honest feedback
  • Someone in-house who can connect your system to our crew's tools
  • Private land for testing and demonstrations
  • Montana relationships with neighboring departments, the county and state forestry

We are looking for

  • Early smoke and fire detection: cameras, sensors, satellite
  • Autonomous response and suppression trials
  • Drones for size-up, finding hot spots and searching for people
  • Alerts that reach volunteers faster
  • Research and grant partners

Let's put it on the ground

If your team needs a place to prove wildfire technology in rugged country, we'd like to talk.

Shawn [LAST NAME], [TITLE]Rollins Fire · Rollins, Montana · rollinsfire.org · [EMAIL] · [PHONE]