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 Ellicott responded to 10 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Ellicott's departments reported 10 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 28 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 90% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
142 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $135K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 39 | — | |
| 2022 | 49 | +25.6% | |
| 2023 | 27 | -44.9% | |
| 2024* | 17 | — | |
| 2025* | 10 | — |
* Well below Ellicott'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 Ellicott departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 7 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 | 3 | 42.9% | |
| 2 | Other | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 1 | 14.3% |
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 Ellicott mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 5 | 71.4% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Multiple heat sources including multiple ignitions | 1 | 14.3% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Ellicott sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 185,143 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 42,795 | 22.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 18,947 | 29.9 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16,580 | 23.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,000 | 39.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 10,000 | 33.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9,636 | 26.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9,064 | 32.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,288 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,355 | 12.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,328 | 23.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 6,000 | 12.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,528 | 26.9 mi |
Top 5 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 Ellicott. 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.