Hart Ventures Inc.

Hart Ventures Inc., doing business as A-1 Fire Services, a Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) based in Lolo, Montana, is a specialized wildland fire services contractor that operates as a prime contractor on federal wildfire suppression and resource-delivery contracts, holding multiple Indefinite Delivery Contracts (IDCs) with the U.S. Forest Service through the Virtual Incident Procurement (VIPR) system. The company delivers concrete capability in wildland firefighting equipment and personnel—water tenders, Type 3 through Type 6 fire engines, fuel tenders, potable and gray water trucks with handwashing stations, weed washing equipment, and firefighting crews—on a firm fixed-price basis to support fire suppression, prevention, preparedness, and all-hazard incident response across federal lands in the western United States.

Hart Ventures Inc. competes predominantly in full-and-open, non-set-aside delivery orders despite its WOSB status; the underlying IDCs are total small business set-asides, but individual delivery orders issued against them carry no set-aside designation. The company registered in SAM in 2004 and operates as a Subchapter S corporation. Recent representative work includes a $350 thousand firm fixed-price delivery order from the Forest Service Intermountain Region (August 2024) for water tenders and fire engines, a $166 thousand delivery order from the same region (August 2024) for wildland fire resources, and a $94 thousand delivery order from the Forest Service Northern Region (July 2024) for fire crews, water tenders, and engines. A smaller April 2026 delivery order from Region 8 Southern Region totaled $20,977.61 under a total small business set-aside, and a September 2025 award from the Forest Service Northern Region carried $30,685 with no set-aside.

Customer concentration is extreme and regional. The top five customers by award count account for 85 percent of recent awards, led overwhelmingly by the Forest Service Northern Region (174 awards, $6 million combined potential value) and the National Interagency Fire Center (77 awards, $5.1 million). When ranked by dollar value, the concentration shifts slightly: the Bureau of Land Management Montana-Dakotas emerges as a co-leader at $6 million across eight awards, matching the Northern Region dollar total but on far fewer transactions. The Forest Service's three other regional offices (Intermountain, Southwestern, and Rocky Mountain) and the National Park Service Intermountain Region round out the active set. This concentration reflects Hart Ventures Inc.'s operational footprint in Forest Service Regions 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 9, covering the northern and western states where wildland fire resources are in greatest demand.

Hart Ventures Inc. holds nine active IDCs, all total small business set-asides with $250,000 ceiling values and three- to five-year performance periods, awarded through the VIPR system by the National Interagency Fire Center. Vehicle portfolios cluster by asset class: heavy equipment with water capabilities (Regions 1, 2, 4, 9 East Zone; awarded February 2026, May 2025, May 2022); water handling services and personnel (East Zone Regions 1, 2, 4, 9; multiple vintages from June 2022 through May 2025 and February 2026); potable and gray water trucks with handwashing stations (Regions 1, 2, 4; awarded February 2026, May 2024, May 2022); and fuel tenders (Regions 1, 2, 4; awarded February 2026, April 2023). The two highest-activity parent vehicles are IDC 12034319T7068 (83 task orders, $2.1 million combined value) and BPA AG0343B167069 (43 task orders, $1.7 million). Hart Ventures Inc. places nearly all its work through these VIPR-issued IDCs and BPAs rather than through broader federal supply schedules or GWACs.

Activity peaked in 2022 at 31 awards, declined to 10 in 2023, recovered to 33 in 2024, dropped to 15 in 2025, and is at 5 through April 2026. Across 337 total prime awards, the contractor has obligated $9.5 million against a combined potential value of $20.5 million (46 percent draw-down), indicating backlog capacity. Awards span delivery orders ranging from under $1,000 (incident-related purchase orders for equipment like forklifts) to $350 thousand for extended wildfire operations. The contractor does not serve as a subcontractor and does not hold sub-awards; 100 percent of the portfolio is prime work.

Hart Ventures Inc.'s capability framing is narrowly specialized: virtually all 323 of its awards are classified under the PSC Natural Resources/Conservation—Forest-Range Fire Suppression/Presuppression, with the remainder (14 awards) scattered across petroleum bulk-station and materials-handling equipment leases, likely reflecting ancillary incident-support or equipment-staging roles. The NAICS footprint mirrors this concentration—296 awards under Support Activities for Forestry, 14 under Petroleum Refineries, nine under Petroleum Bulk Stations and Terminals. This extreme category concentration signals a vendor with little federal customer diversification and no significant pivot into non-wildfire federal work.

Wildland Fire Equipment Contractor, Potable Water Contractor, Fuel Tender Contractor