Senators Warn Federal Firefighting Budget Nearly Exhausted With Fire Season Not Over
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In 2025, fire departments serving Evergreen responded to 71 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 61% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
215 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $302K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 13 | — | |
| 2022* | 22 | — | |
| 2023 | 43 | — | |
| 2024 | 66 | +53.5% | |
| 2025 | 71 | +7.6% |
* Well below Evergreen'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 6 building fires Evergreen departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 56 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 12 | 21.4% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 6 | 10.7% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 4 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 4 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 3 | 5.4% | |
| 6 | Structural area, other | 3 | 5.4% | |
| 7 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 3 | 5.4% | |
| 8 | Wall surface: exterior | 3 | 5.4% | |
| 9 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 3 | 5.4% | |
| 10 | Other | 2 | 3.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 13 | 23.2% |
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 Evergreen mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 18 | 32.1% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 6 | 10.7% | |
| 3 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 6 | 10.7% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 4 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 4 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 4 | 7.1% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 5.4% | |
| 8 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 2 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Conducted heat from another fire | 2 | 3.6% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 6 | 10.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Evergreen departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $3,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $1 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Evergreen sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 232,700 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 137,760 | 40.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14,833 | 41.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Recreation and ceremony | 11,875 | 20.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 10,800 | 15.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,106 | 35.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 6,382 | 28.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,200 | 13.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Equipment and vehicle use | 4,348 | 45.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 4,142 | 15.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 4,085 | 27.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3,869 | 34.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,008 | 34.4 mi |
Top 4 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 Evergreen. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Evergreen.
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.