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 Gold Beach responded to 110 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 84% of all calls.
May peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
443 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 28 | — | |
| 2022 | 82 | — | |
| 2023 | 139 | +69.5% | |
| 2024 | 84 | -39.6% | |
| 2025 | 110 | +31.0% |
* Well below Gold Beach'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 9 building fires Gold Beach departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 62 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 | 25 | 40.3% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 8 | 12.9% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 6 | 9.7% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 6 | 9.7% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 4 | 6.5% | |
| 6 | Other | 2 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 2 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Storage area, other | 2 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Interior stairway or ramp | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 5 | 8.1% |
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 Gold Beach mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 36 | 58.1% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 8 | 12.9% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 5 | 8.1% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 4.8% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 3.2% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 2 | 3.2% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Gold Beach sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 926,339 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Natural | 499,945 | 35.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 191,125 | 24.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 87,701 | 28.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 52,839 | 43.3 mi | |
| 2013 | Natural | 26,725 | 36.6 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 14,772 | 33.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 12,263 | 16.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,494 | 34.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 6,998 | 39.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 5,679 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 5,345 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,106 | 40.1 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 97444 | 443 |
Six Oregon cities with population within ±25% of Gold Beach. 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.