Senators Warn Federal Firefighting Budget Nearly Exhausted With Fire Season Not Over
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In 2025, fire departments serving Bend responded to 830 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $750K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 63% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,840 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $17.7M cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 678 | — | |
| 2022 | 778 | +14.7% | |
| 2023 | 790 | +1.5% | |
| 2024 | 764 | -3.3% | |
| 2025 | 830 | +8.6% |
For the 85 building fires Bend departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,457 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 | 315 | 21.6% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 148 | 10.2% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 137 | 9.4% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 128 | 8.8% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 93 | 6.4% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 89 | 6.1% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 76 | 5.2% | |
| 8 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 62 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 49 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Other | 33 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 327 | 22.4% |
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 Bend mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 384 | 26.4% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 121 | 8.3% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 110 | 7.5% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 102 | 7.0% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 98 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 79 | 5.4% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 78 | 5.4% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 74 | 5.1% | |
| 9 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 64 | 4.4% | |
| 10 | Chemical reaction | 58 | 4.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 289 | 19.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bend departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 61% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $750,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $246,204 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $120,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bend sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
40 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 | 8 | |
| 30-39 | 14 | |
| 40-49 | 14 | |
| 50-59 | 4 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 778,266 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Natural | 204,469 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 173,393 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 79,734 | 36.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 29,500 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 26,795 | 20.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 24,025 | 25.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 23,573 | 39.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 21,546 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 21,135 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 18,500 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 18,086 | 29.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 17,739 | 10.8 mi |
Top 5 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 Bend. 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.