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In 2025, fire departments serving Cortez responded to 191 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $230K 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 60% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
874 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $924K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 198 | — | |
| 2022 | 167 | -15.7% | |
| 2023 | 137 | -18.0% | |
| 2024 | 181 | +32.1% | |
| 2025 | 191 | +5.5% |
For the 23 building fires Cortez departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 333 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 | 91 | 27.3% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 51 | 15.3% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 28 | 8.4% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 26 | 7.8% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 17 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 17 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 16 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 10 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 7 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 6 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 64 | 19.2% |
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 Cortez mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 177 | 53.2% | |
| 2 | Lightning | 20 | 6.0% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 17 | 5.1% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 14 | 4.2% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 13 | 3.9% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 12 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 11 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 8 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 8 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Arcing | 8 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 45 | 13.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Cortez departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $230,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Cortez 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 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 243,090 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 | 73,121 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 54,129 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 23,220 | 10.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 19,634 | 22.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 10,133 | 16.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 7,300 | 21.9 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 7,271 | 37.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 4,781 | 9.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,593 | 27.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 3,888 | 10.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 3,840 | 32.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 3,211 | 43.6 mi |
Top 4 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 Cortez. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Cortez.
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.