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.
In 2025, fire departments serving Bonanza responded to 32 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 84% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
143 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $90K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 35 | — | |
| 2022 | 39 | +11.4% | |
| 2023 | 31 | -20.5% | |
| 2024* | 6 | — | |
| 2025 | 32 | — |
* Well below Bonanza'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 1 building fires Bonanza departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 108 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 | 44 | 40.7% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 28 | 25.9% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 13 | 12.0% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 7 | 6.5% | |
| 5 | Other | 3 | 2.8% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 3 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 2 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 0.9% | |
| 10 | Storage area, other | 1 | 0.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 3 | 2.8% |
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 Bonanza mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 45 | 41.7% | |
| 2 | Match | 17 | 15.7% | |
| 3 | Cigarette lighter | 9 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Lightning | 9 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 6 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 5 | 4.6% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 3 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 7 | 6.5% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bonanza sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 513,890 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Natural | 92,977 | 31.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 82,018 | 34.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 59,061 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 45,690 | 32.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Natural | 35,129 | 49.2 mi | |
| 1992 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 30,809 | 30.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Natural | 30,568 | 38.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 23,398 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14,473 | 39.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 14,217 | 33.8 mi | |
| 1992 | Natural | 10,706 | 22.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 9,940 | 31.2 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 Bonanza. 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.