Senators Warn Federal Firefighting Budget Nearly Exhausted With Fire Season Not Over
Five senators told Interior and USDA the $6 billion FY2026 fire suppression budget was nearly spent by Sept. 2, citing staffing gaps and firefighter deaths.
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In 2025, fire departments serving Ashland responded to 292 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 49% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,190 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $1.6M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 242 | — | |
| 2022 | 260 | +7.4% | |
| 2023* | 139 | — | |
| 2024 | 257 | — | |
| 2025 | 292 | +13.6% |
* Well below Ashland'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 5 building fires Ashland departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 348 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 | 62 | 17.8% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 54 | 15.5% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 30 | 8.6% | |
| 4 | Other | 29 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 27 | 7.8% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 23 | 6.6% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 22 | 6.3% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 17 | 4.9% | |
| 9 | Wildland, woods | 15 | 4.3% | |
| 10 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 7 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 62 | 17.8% |
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 Ashland mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 74 | 21.3% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 72 | 20.7% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 36 | 10.3% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 24 | 6.9% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 19 | 5.5% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 16 | 4.6% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 15 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 14 | 4.0% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 11 | 3.2% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 11 | 3.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 56 | 16.1% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Ashland sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 782,507 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 157,270 | 40.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Natural | 115,279 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 45,403 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 38,134 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 38,008 | 22.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Natural | 35,129 | 20.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 33,344 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 33,011 | 31.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 32,846 | 27.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Natural | 32,496 | 20.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 29,454 | 26.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 27,350 | 43.7 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Oregon cities with population within ±25% of Ashland. 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.