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In 2025, fire departments serving Commerce City responded to 274 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 63% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,221 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $5.0M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 429 | — | |
| 2022 | 498 | +16.1% | |
| 2023 | 440 | -11.6% | |
| 2024 | 580 | +31.8% | |
| 2025 | 274 | -52.8% |
For the 26 building fires Commerce City departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 460 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 | 108 | 23.5% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 91 | 19.8% | |
| 3 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 29 | 6.3% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 28 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 27 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 27 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 16 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 16 | 3.5% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 15 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 15 | 3.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 88 | 19.1% |
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 Commerce City mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 262 | 57.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 37 | 8.0% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 34 | 7.4% | |
| 4 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 20 | 4.3% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 18 | 3.9% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 15 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 14 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 9 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 9 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Hot ember or ash | 8 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 34 | 7.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Commerce City departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 90% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $42,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $40,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $40,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $14,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $12,722 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Commerce City sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
18 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 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 7 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 108,882 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,699 | 39.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Recreation and ceremony | 11,875 | 44.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 10,800 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Recreation and ceremony | 10,599 | 47.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,106 | 34.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 6,382 | 31.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,200 | 18.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Equipment and vehicle use | 4,348 | 40.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 4,142 | 35.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 4,085 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3,869 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 3,713 | 44.6 mi |
Top 8 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 Commerce City. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Commerce 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.