Great Falls Fire Rescue responded to a fire in the attic at 2201 7th Ave. N.

GFFR was dispatched at 2:22 p.m. Oct. 16 and a crew arrived on scene at 2:25 p.m., finding a light haze coming from the attic of the house, according to GFFR.

Crews initially had a difficult time accessing the attic, but once they were able to, quickly extinguished the fire and removed the smoldering insulation.

GFFR responds to two structure fires this week; numbers on par with 2024

The damage to the house was limited to a few trusses in the attic and the cause was determined to be electrical, according to GFFR.

The city was experiencing a high volume of calls as GFFR was responding to this structure fire and a second alarm was struck, calling back off-duty firefighters. The Montana Air National Guard and Malmstrom Air Force Base fire departments were asked to backfill two GFFR stations until GFFR firefighters could arrive, under their mutual aid agreements.

GFFR responds to fire at vacant house

The fire is the 27th structure fire of the year, according to GFFR data, remaining on par with 2024 when there were 25 structure fires by the end of September.

This year, there were three fires in September and one so far in October.

In 2024, there were 19 structure fires from September through December, for a total of 41 that year.