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 Holyoke responded to 31 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 84% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
91 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $20K cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 1 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023 | 25 | — | |
| 2024 | 34 | +36.0% | |
| 2025 | 31 | -8.8% |
* Well below Holyoke'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 Holyoke departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 25 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 12 | 48.0% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 4 | 16.0% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 3 | 12.0% | |
| 4 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 8.0% | |
| 6 | Fuel tank, fuel line | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 4.0% |
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 Holyoke mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 10 | 40.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 16.0% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 3 | 12.0% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 9 | Chemical, natural heat source, other | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 10 | Lightning | 1 | 4.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Holyoke sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 83,181 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 30,000 | 37.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 24,000 | 39.9 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,000 | 39.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,200 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2,570 | 22.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,500 | 19.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,783 | 14.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,300 | 23.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 1,200 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,150 | 31.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,000 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,000 | 30.3 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 | 80734 | 91 |
Six Colorado cities with population within ±25% of Holyoke. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Holyoke.
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.