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 Burlington responded to 63 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 68% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
98 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023 | 35 | — | |
| 2024* | 0 | — | |
| 2025 | 63 | — |
* Well below Burlington'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 Burlington departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 43 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 | 14 | 32.6% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 10 | 23.3% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 5 | 11.6% | |
| 4 | Other | 4 | 9.3% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 4 | 9.3% | |
| 6 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 7 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Wall assembly | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1 | 2.3% |
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 Burlington mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 26 | 60.5% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 5 | 11.6% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 7.0% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 4.7% | |
| 5 | Molten, hot material | 2 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 7 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Fireworks | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Lightning | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 2.3% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Burlington sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 17,614 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,000 | 41.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,800 | 24.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,132 | 18.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,107 | 36.3 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 600 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 510 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 37.7 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Fireworks | 400 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 36.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 350 | 32.6 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 | 80807 | 98 |
Six Colorado cities with population within ±25% of Burlington. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Burlington.
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.