In 2025, fire departments serving Bogota responded to 42 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 83% of all calls.
Dec peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
251 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $11K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 81 | — | |
| 2022 | 31 | -61.7% | |
| 2023* | 2 | — | |
| 2024 | 95 | — | |
| 2025 | 42 | -55.8% |
* Well below Bogota'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 14 building fires Bogota departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 18 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 | Other | 3 | 16.7% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 3 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 3 | 16.7% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 3 | 16.7% | |
| 6 | Function area, other | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 8 | Railroad right of way: on or near | 1 | 5.6% |
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 Bogota mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 4 | 22.2% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 3 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 8 | Multiple heat sources including multiple ignitions | 1 | 5.6% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bogota sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 8,391 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Smoking | 700 | 33.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 20.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 552 | 25.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Smoking | 500 | 44.3 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 485 | 25.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 481 | 27.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Firearms and explosives use | 475 | 31.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 468 | 33.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 41.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Recreation and ceremony | 410 | 26.6 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 363 | 13.1 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 18.4 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 | 07603 | 251 |
Six New Jersey cities with population within ±25% of Bogota. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Bogota.
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.