In 2025, fire departments serving El Paso responded to 30 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 90% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
156 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 32 | — | |
| 2022 | 51 | +59.4% | |
| 2023 | 33 | -35.3% | |
| 2024* | 10 | — | |
| 2025 | 30 | — |
* Well below El Paso'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 0 building fires El Paso departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 114 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 | 94.7% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 1.8% | |
| 3 | Other | 1 | 0.9% | |
| 4 | Storage area, other | 1 | 0.9% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 0.9% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 0.9% |
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 El Paso mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 112 | 98.2% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 1 | 0.9% | |
| 3 | Sunlight | 1 | 0.9% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. El Paso sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 13,016 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,779 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 19.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,401 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 776 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 636 | 16.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 524 | 33.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 508 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 471 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 456 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 441 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 413 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 47.9 mi |
Top 3 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Arkansas cities with population within ±25% of El Paso. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.