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In 2025, fire departments serving Basalt responded to 66 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500 building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Carbon monoxide incident lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 55% of all calls.
May peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
133 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $7K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 1 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023* | 0 | — | |
| 2024 | 66 | — | |
| 2025 | 66 | +0.0% |
* Well below Basalt'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 2 building fires Basalt departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 12 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 | Undetermined | 3 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 2 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Wall assembly | 2 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Egress/exit, other | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 7 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 8 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 8.3% |
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 Basalt mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 5 | 41.7% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 6 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 7 | Lightning | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 8 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 8.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Basalt departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $30 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Basalt sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 115,837 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 | 32,431 | 18.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 17,056 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 13,493 | 32.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,209 | 23.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 5,967 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 4,417 | 41.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 3,848 | 49.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 3,190 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,070 | 0.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 2,703 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,400 | 7.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 2,115 | 24.4 mi |
Top 3 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Colorado cities with population within ±25% of Basalt. 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.