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In 2025, fire departments serving Denver responded to 6,371 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $3.0M 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 52% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
30,385 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $100.0M cumulative property loss. 4 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 6,334 | — | |
| 2022 | 6,041 | -4.6% | |
| 2023 | 5,204 | -13.9% | |
| 2024 | 6,435 | +23.7% | |
| 2025 | 6,371 | -1.0% |
For the 203 building fires Denver departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 6,566 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 | 2,425 | 36.9% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 772 | 11.8% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 649 | 9.9% | |
| 4 | Other | 410 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 261 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 225 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 155 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 151 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 125 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 123 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1,270 | 19.3% |
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 Denver mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 4,367 | 66.5% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 358 | 5.5% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 308 | 4.7% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 234 | 3.6% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 186 | 2.8% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 174 | 2.7% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 171 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 135 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 107 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 65 | 1.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 461 | 7.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Denver departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 41% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $3,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $518,700 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $330,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Denver sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
42 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 | 6 | |
| 30-39 | 17 | |
| 40-49 | 6 | |
| 50-59 | 6 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 96,562 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 | 46.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Recreation and ceremony | 11,875 | 38.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 10,800 | 36.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,106 | 38.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 6,382 | 33.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,200 | 13.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Equipment and vehicle use | 4,348 | 45.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 4,142 | 28.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 4,085 | 39.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3,869 | 37.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,008 | 26.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Smoking | 2,312 | 41.7 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
5 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Denver.
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.