In 2025, fire departments serving Colorado City responded to 42 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $3K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 69% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
170 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $92K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 5 | — | |
| 2022 | 44 | — | |
| 2023 | 38 | -13.6% | |
| 2024 | 41 | +7.9% | |
| 2025 | 42 | +2.4% |
* Well below Colorado City'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 Colorado City departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 40 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 | Undetermined | 7 | 17.5% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 6 | 15.0% | |
| 3 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 4 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 4 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 4 | 10.0% | |
| 6 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 2 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 2 | 5.0% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 2 | 5.0% | |
| 9 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 2 | 5.0% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 2 | 5.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 5 | 12.5% |
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 Colorado City mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 13 | 32.5% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 5 | 12.5% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 4 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 7.5% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 2 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 5.0% | |
| 8 | Match | 2 | 5.0% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 2 | 5.0% | |
| 10 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 2 | 5.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 3 | 7.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Colorado City departments in 2025. These 6 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $800 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $500 | Cultivated grain or crop fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $400 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $300 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $200 | Grass fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Colorado City sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
5 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 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 499,562 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 71,450 | 42.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 58,630 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Recreation and ceremony | 50,737 | 47.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 35,907 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 34,200 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Recreation and ceremony | 29,933 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 21,105 | 41.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 17,688 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 17,632 | 21.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Natural | 16,816 | 49.2 mi | |
| 1995 | Natural | 12,641 | 43.1 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 12,607 | 38.9 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 Arizona cities with population within ±25% of Colorado City. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Colorado 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.