In 2025, fire departments serving Alamo responded to 10 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $417K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 80% of all calls.
May peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
40 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.2M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 5 | — | |
| 2022 | 8 | +60.0% | |
| 2023* | 4 | — | |
| 2024 | 13 | — | |
| 2025 | 10 | -23.1% |
* Well below Alamo's usual volume. That almost always means one or more departments didn't submit a full year to NFIRS, not that fires dropped, so no year-over-year change is shown for it.
For the 3 building fires Alamo departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 21 building fires investigators classified across 2021–2025. The room or location where ignition occurred — kitchens, bedrooms, exterior, vehicle areas — tells you where to focus prevention.
| # | Area of origin | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 14.3% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 3 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 10 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 5 | 23.8% |
NFIRS Heat Source (HEAT_SOURC) — the physical thing that started it. Spark or ember from operating equipment, an open flame, smoking materials, or hot embers from a fireplace are the leading culprits nationwide. Here's the Alamo mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 9 | 42.9% | |
| 2 | Cigarette lighter | 3 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 4 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 9 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 4.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Alamo departments in 2025. These 6 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $417,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $45,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $2,000 | Cultivated grain or crop fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $1,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Alamo sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 923,834 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Natural | 238,058 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 168,293 | 26.1 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 149,131 | 30.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 59,265 | 34.0 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 43,000 | 22.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25,110 | 11.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 24,452 | 13.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 23,680 | 19.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 23,649 | 24.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Natural | 22,591 | 19.3 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 21,686 | 37.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 21,120 | 43.9 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 89001 | 40 |
Six Nevada cities with population within ±25% of Alamo. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
A 30-minute weekend can cut your home's exposure substantially. These four checklists are a good starting point.
Numbers reflect incidents reported by participating fire departments to the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) Public Data Release for calendar year 2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Per-capita comparisons use 2023 ACS population estimates. Wildland fire data complements NFIRS with NIFC and USFS perimeters. Active-fire counts come from a dated NIFC snapshot, not a live feed.