Senators Warn Federal Firefighting Budget Nearly Exhausted With Fire Season Not Over
Five senators told Interior and USDA the $6 billion FY2026 fire suppression budget was nearly spent by Sept. 2, citing staffing gaps and firefighter deaths.
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In 2025, fire departments serving Eads responded to 23 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 78% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
74 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 14 | — | |
| 2022 | 19 | +35.7% | |
| 2023 | 13 | -31.6% | |
| 2024* | 5 | — | |
| 2025 | 23 | — |
* Well below Eads'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 Eads departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 51 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 | 9 | 17.6% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 7 | 13.7% | |
| 3 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 6 | 11.8% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 9.8% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 5 | 9.8% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 4 | 7.8% | |
| 7 | Other | 3 | 5.9% | |
| 8 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 2 | 3.9% | |
| 9 | Entrance way, lobby | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 8 | 15.7% |
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 Eads mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 17 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Heat, spark from friction | 8 | 15.7% | |
| 3 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 4 | 7.8% | |
| 4 | Lightning | 4 | 7.8% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 3 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 5.9% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 3.9% | |
| 9 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 2 | 3.9% | |
| 10 | Arcing | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 4 | 7.8% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Eads sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 95,190 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16,000 | 38.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 15,000 | 10.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14,726 | 38.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,000 | 31.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,288 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Natural | 4,521 | 32.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,000 | 31.3 mi | |
| 1994 | Recreation and ceremony | 4,000 | 16.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,000 | 31.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,100 | 24.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 1,725 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 45.0 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 81036 | 74 |
Six Colorado cities with population within ±25% of Eads. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Eads.
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.