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In 2025, fire departments serving Gunbarrel responded to 24 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1K 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 75% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
125 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $305K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 19 | — | |
| 2022 | 30 | +57.9% | |
| 2023* | 13 | — | |
| 2024 | 39 | — | |
| 2025 | 24 | -38.5% |
* Well below Gunbarrel'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 Gunbarrel departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 18 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 | 4 | 22.2% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Conduit, pipe, utility, or ventilation shaft | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Other | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Light shaft | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 8 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 9 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 2 | 11.1% |
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 Gunbarrel mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 11 | 61.1% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Chemical reaction | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 5.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Gunbarrel departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $500 | Special outside fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Gunbarrel sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 210,732 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Natural | 87,275 | 38.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14,833 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,699 | 38.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 10,800 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Recreation and ceremony | 10,599 | 27.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,106 | 12.7 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 8,908 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | 7,685 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 6,382 | 11.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,200 | 27.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Equipment and vehicle use | 4,348 | 19.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 4,142 | 43.4 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 | 80301 | 125 |
Six Colorado cities with population within ±25% of Gunbarrel. 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.