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.
In 2025, fire departments serving Greenwood Village responded to 62 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K 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 53% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
280 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.9M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 36 | — | |
| 2022* | 32 | — | |
| 2023 | 46 | — | |
| 2024 | 104 | +126.1% | |
| 2025 | 62 | -40.4% |
* Well below Greenwood Village'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 3 building fires Greenwood Village departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 112 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 | 21 | 18.8% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 20 | 17.9% | |
| 3 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 10 | 8.9% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 9 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 6 | 5.4% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 6 | 5.4% | |
| 7 | Other | 5 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 5 | 4.5% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 4 | 3.6% | |
| 10 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 3 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 23 | 20.5% |
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 Greenwood Village mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 49 | 43.8% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 11 | 9.8% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 10 | 8.9% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 8 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 7 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 6 | 5.4% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 5 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 4 | 3.6% | |
| 10 | Chemical reaction | 2 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 6 | 5.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Greenwood Village departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 99% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $101,200 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $17,995 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $10,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $7,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Greenwood Village sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 232,127 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 | 46.8 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16,580 | 44.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Recreation and ceremony | 11,875 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 10,800 | 29.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,106 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 6,382 | 38.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,200 | 10.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 4,142 | 20.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 4,085 | 29.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3,869 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,008 | 34.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Smoking | 2,312 | 35.2 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 Greenwood Village. 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.