Senators Warn Federal Firefighting Budget Nearly Exhausted With Fire Season Not Over
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In 2025, fire departments serving Forest Grove responded to 165 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $350K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 60% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
718 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $1.2M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 206 | — | |
| 2022 | 234 | +13.6% | |
| 2023* | 56 | — | |
| 2024* | 57 | — | |
| 2025 | 165 | — |
* Well below Forest Grove'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 29 building fires Forest Grove departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 149 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 | 23 | 15.4% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 19 | 12.8% | |
| 3 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 16 | 10.7% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 13 | 8.7% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 9 | 6.0% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 8 | 5.4% | |
| 7 | Outside area, other | 8 | 5.4% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 7 | 4.7% | |
| 9 | Other | 6 | 4.0% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 6 | 4.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 34 | 22.8% |
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 Forest Grove mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 73 | 49.0% | |
| 2 | Cigarette | 17 | 11.4% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 9 | 6.0% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 7 | 4.7% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 6 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 6 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Match | 6 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 3 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 3 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 16 | 10.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Forest Grove departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 95% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $175,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $35,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Forest Grove sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 15,774 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Natural | 7,500 | 23.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,584 | 35.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,508 | 37.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 532 | 40.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 497 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 301 | 35.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 281 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 254 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 250 | 46.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 215 | 28.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 211 | 7.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 166 | 21.2 mi |
Top 2 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 Forest Grove. 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.