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 Eugene responded to 1,006 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.2M 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 53% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
4,949 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $27.7M cumulative property loss. 5 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,042 | — | |
| 2022 | 997 | -4.3% | |
| 2023 | 951 | -4.6% | |
| 2024 | 953 | +0.2% | |
| 2025 | 1,006 | +5.6% |
For the 94 building fires Eugene departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 2,216 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 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 602 | 27.2% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 209 | 9.4% | |
| 3 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 172 | 7.8% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 170 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 153 | 6.9% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 151 | 6.8% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 93 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 64 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 49 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 49 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 504 | 22.7% |
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 Eugene mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 1,015 | 45.8% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 167 | 7.5% | |
| 3 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 126 | 5.7% | |
| 4 | Cigarette | 120 | 5.4% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 113 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 107 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 102 | 4.6% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 91 | 4.1% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 61 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Hot ember or ash | 60 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 254 | 11.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Eugene departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 52% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,200,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $423,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $330,404 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $230,866 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $230,866 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $230,866 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Eugene sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
12 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 | 3 | |
| 10-19 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 223,644 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 173,393 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Smoking | 11,555 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 10,114 | 27.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Smoking | 8,709 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Natural | 6,033 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,964 | 27.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 1,070 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 804 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 790 | 26.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 770 | 45.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 694 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 650 | 34.4 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.
Six Oregon cities with population within ±25% of Eugene. 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.