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In 2025, fire departments serving Castle Pines responded to 17 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $25K 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 71% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
74 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $81K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 5 | — | |
| 2022 | 11 | — | |
| 2023 | 16 | +45.5% | |
| 2024 | 25 | +56.2% | |
| 2025 | 17 | -32.0% |
* Well below Castle Pines'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 Castle Pines departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 23 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 4 | 17.4% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 4 | 17.4% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 13.0% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 3 | 13.0% | |
| 5 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 7 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Switchgear area, transformer vault | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1 | 4.3% |
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 Castle Pines mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 6 | 26.1% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 13.0% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 3 | 13.0% | |
| 4 | Chemical reaction | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 5 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Explosive, fireworks, other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Fireworks | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 10 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 2 | 8.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Castle Pines departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $24,730 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $300 | Dumpster or other outside trash receptacle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Castle Pines sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 242,645 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 | 40.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 18,947 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16,580 | 33.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Recreation and ceremony | 11,875 | 26.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 10,800 | 28.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 6,382 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,200 | 18.4 mi | |
| 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 5,000 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 4,142 | 18.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 4,085 | 22.6 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,008 | 45.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Smoking | 2,312 | 35.0 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 | 80108 | 74 |
Six Colorado cities with population within ±25% of Castle Pines. 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.