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In 2025, fire departments serving Canon City responded to 325 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $400K building blaze. 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 51% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,582 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.9M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 294 | — | |
| 2022 | 320 | +8.8% | |
| 2023 | 294 | -8.1% | |
| 2024 | 349 | +18.7% | |
| 2025 | 325 | -6.9% |
For the 16 building fires Canon City departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 481 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 80 | 16.6% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 62 | 12.9% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 52 | 10.8% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 41 | 8.5% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 35 | 7.3% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 31 | 6.4% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 30 | 6.2% | |
| 8 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 19 | 4.0% | |
| 9 | Other | 16 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 13 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 102 | 21.2% |
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 Canon City mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 195 | 40.5% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 32 | 6.7% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 30 | 6.2% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 24 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 22 | 4.6% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 21 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 20 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Lightning | 18 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 14 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 13 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 92 | 19.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Canon City departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 99% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $29,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Canon City sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
11 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 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 354,847 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 137,760 | 43.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 42,795 | 32.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 18,947 | 34.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 18,320 | 19.5 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16,580 | 45.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 16,562 | 34.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 11,357 | 21.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9,636 | 27.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9,064 | 19.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,959 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,355 | 40.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,328 | 29.4 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 Colorado cities with population within ±25% of Canon City. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
4 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Canon City.
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.