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 Beaverton responded to 847 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.5M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Vehicle accident, general cleanup lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 65% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
4,693 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $19.4M cumulative property loss. 5 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 967 | — | |
| 2022 | 968 | +0.1% | |
| 2023 | 1,004 | +3.7% | |
| 2024 | 907 | -9.7% | |
| 2025 | 847 | -6.6% |
For the 66 building fires Beaverton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 2,075 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 | Outside area, other | 358 | 17.3% | |
| 2 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 333 | 16.0% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 291 | 14.0% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 271 | 13.1% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 93 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 76 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 67 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 62 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 46 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Other | 34 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 444 | 21.4% |
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 Beaverton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 905 | 43.6% | |
| 2 | Cigarette | 312 | 15.0% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 137 | 6.6% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 103 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 96 | 4.6% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 87 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Fireworks | 63 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 61 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Arcing | 58 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 54 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 199 | 9.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Beaverton departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 78% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,473,500 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $574,480 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $345,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $265,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $242,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $233,280 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Beaverton sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
28 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 6 | |
| 40-49 | 7 | |
| 50-59 | 6 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 234,114 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 | 138,054 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Fireworks | 48,488 | 45.4 mi | |
| 1992 | Smoking | 24,400 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 7,500 | 10.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,508 | 36.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,584 | 23.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,508 | 23.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,000 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 790 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 532 | 30.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 497 | 27.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 40.1 mi |
Top 10 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 Beaverton. 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.