Senators Warn Federal Firefighting Budget Nearly Exhausted With Fire Season Not Over
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In 2025, fire departments serving Deer Trail responded to 34 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $375K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 71% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
122 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $2.2M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 13 | — | |
| 2022* | 14 | — | |
| 2023* | 10 | — | |
| 2024 | 51 | — | |
| 2025 | 34 | -33.3% |
* Well below Deer Trail'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 5 building fires Deer Trail departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 11 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 | 4 | 36.4% | |
| 2 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 3 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 7 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 8 | Outside area, other | 1 | 9.1% |
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 Deer Trail mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 7 | 63.6% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 2 | 18.2% | |
| 3 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 9.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Deer Trail departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $375,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $270,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $8,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Deer Trail sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 73,565 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 45,000 | 25.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 4,300 | 40.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,200 | 24.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 3,713 | 46.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 20.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 46.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,800 | 12.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,600 | 39.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,200 | 40.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,000 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 650 | 6.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 610 | 16.0 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 Deer Trail. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Deer Trail.
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.