NIFC Wildfire Incidents Scraper

NIFC Wildfire Incidents Scraper

Scrape active wildfire incidents from the National Interagency Fire Center, filtered by state and minimum acreage. Every incident returns its name, size, containment, location, and discovery date. No API key required. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

The NIFC publishes the authoritative daily snapshot of large active wildfires across the United States, but the data is locked inside a web map and a PDF. This Actor reads the live incident feed directly, lets you filter by state and minimum acreage, and returns each fire as a clean, flat row you can drop into a dashboard, a GIS, or a report.

Who uses it	What they scrape NIFC for
Emergency managers	Monitor which large fires are active in their jurisdiction this morning.
Insurance analysts	Track acreage and containment of fires near insured properties.
Newsrooms and data journalists	Pull the daily national fire picture for maps and breaking-news graphics.
GIS specialists	Feed live incident points into a spatial dashboard or evacuation-zone overlay.

What it does

This Actor collects active wildfire incidents from the NIFC public feed and returns each one as a flat row with its name, size, containment, location, and discovery date.

• 📍 State filter: restrict the run to a single US state code, like CA, OR, or TX.
• 📏 Minimum acreage cutoff: ignore small fires and collect only incidents above a size you set.
• 🔢 Volume control: cap the total number of incidents per run, from a single fire up to a million.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with NIFC data

🔥 Build a morning wildfire briefing.

An emergency operations center runs the Actor at 7 a.m. for their state, filters to fires over 100 acres, and pastes the CSV into the daily situation report.

📊 Feed a live operations dashboard.

A GIS team schedules an hourly run, pulls the latest incidents into a GeoJSON layer, and displays fire names, acreage, and containment on a public-facing map.

📰 Power breaking-news graphics.

A data desk scrapes all active incidents, filters to fires over 1,000 acres, and builds an automated national fire-map for the homepage.

📋 Monitor exposure for a portfolio.

An insurance analyst runs the Actor for a high-risk state, filters to fires over 500 acres, and cross-references incident locations against policy addresses.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
Live NIFC data	The same incident list the agencies use, refreshed daily.
Flat, predictable schema	One row per fire with fixed columns, ready for a database or spreadsheet.
No API registration	Reads the public feed directly with zero authentication.
State and size filters	Narrow the run to one state and a minimum acreage before data is written.

How it compares

This Actor focuses on the NIFC active incident list itself, while the Wildfire Asset Exposure Screener adds spatial analysis on top of live perimeters.

Feature	ParseForge	Wildfire Asset Exposure Screener
NIFC active incident list	Yes, the full daily feed	Not listed
Filter by US state	Yes, single state code	Not listed
Filter by minimum acreage	Yes	Not listed
Distance to fire perimeter per asset	Not included	Yes
USFS Wildfire Hazard Potential overlay	Not included	Yes

Configure the run

Drive the Actor with an optional state code and a minimum acreage threshold; filters run as each incident is read so only matches reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
  "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
  "maxItems": 200
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.0085 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$0.85
1,000 results	$8.50
10,000 results	$85.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the NIFC Wildfire Incidents Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to NIFC through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/nifc-wildfire-incidents-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting zero results?

Your state filter or minimum acreage may be too restrictive. Try removing the state code and setting minAcres to 0 to see the full active incident list, then tighten filters from there.

The Actor ran but the dataset is empty.

The NIFC feed may have no active incidents matching your criteria at this moment. Check the NIFC public map to confirm whether large fires are currently burning in your target area.

Why did I get fewer results than my maxItems setting?

The Actor returns only the incidents that exist in the feed. If the NIFC reports 12 active fires and you set maxItems to 100, you will receive 12 rows.

The state filter is not working as I expected.

Use the two-letter USPS state abbreviation in uppercase, like CA, OR, or TX. Full state names and lowercase codes are not recognized by the filter.

FAQ

Question	Answer
How often is the NIFC incident data updated?	The NIFC refreshes its active incident feed at least once daily, typically by mid-morning Mountain Time. Run the Actor on a schedule that matches your operational tempo.
Does this Actor return historical fires or only active incidents?	It returns the current active incident list. Historical fire perimeters and past burn scars are not included in this feed.
Can I filter by multiple states in one run?	The state input accepts a single two-letter US state code. To collect incidents from multiple states, run the Actor once per state or leave the field empty to get all states.
What does the containment field mean?	Containment is the percentage of the fire perimeter that firefighters have secured with a control line. It is reported as a number by the incident management team.
Does this Actor include prescribed burns?	The NIFC feed focuses on large, uncontained wildfires. Prescribed fires and smaller managed burns are generally not listed unless they exceed reporting thresholds.
Is there a rate limit on the NIFC feed?	The public feed is lightweight and designed for frequent access. Running the Actor every hour is well within normal usage.
Can I get the incident coordinates?	Yes, the Actor returns the latitude and longitude of each incident's point location as provided by the NIFC.
What export formats are supported?	You can export your dataset as CSV, JSON, Excel, XML, or RSS from the Apify dataset tab.
How do I schedule this to run automatically?	Use Apify's built-in scheduler. Set a cron expression, choose your state and acreage inputs, and the Actor will push fresh data to your dataset on that cadence.

Related actors

Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by National Interagency Fire Center. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.