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 Harrisburg responded to 43 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 63% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
189 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.3M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 21 | — | |
| 2022 | 25 | — | |
| 2023 | 46 | +84.0% | |
| 2024 | 54 | +17.4% | |
| 2025 | 43 | -20.4% |
* Well below Harrisburg'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 0 building fires Harrisburg departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 83 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 | 18 | 21.7% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 18 | 21.7% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 14 | 16.9% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 6 | 7.2% | |
| 5 | Wall surface: exterior | 4 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 4 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 3 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 3 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Railroad right of way: on or near | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 9 | 10.8% |
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 Harrisburg mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hot ember or ash | 17 | 20.5% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 12 | 14.5% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 12 | 14.5% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 8 | 9.6% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 7 | 8.4% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 5 | 6.0% | |
| 7 | Heat, spark from friction | 4 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 3 | 3.6% | |
| 10 | Conducted heat from another fire | 3 | 3.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 9 | 10.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Harrisburg departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $4,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $500 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Harrisburg sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 212,370 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 173,393 | 46.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Smoking | 11,555 | 47.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 10,114 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Natural | 6,033 | 47.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,964 | 35.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 1,070 | 39.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 790 | 35.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 650 | 37.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 518 | 31.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 376 | 38.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 307 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Recreation and ceremony | 283 | 49.8 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 | 97446 | 189 |
Six Oregon cities with population within ±25% of Harrisburg. 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.