In 2025, fire departments serving Kirtland responded to 71 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1 building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 61% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
326 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $140K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 105 | — | |
| 2022 | 95 | -9.5% | |
| 2023* | 6 | — | |
| 2024 | 49 | — | |
| 2025 | 71 | +44.9% |
* Well below Kirtland'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 7 building fires Kirtland departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 140 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 | Outside area, other | 43 | 30.7% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 36 | 25.7% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 10 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 5 | 3.6% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 5 | 3.6% | |
| 6 | Other | 4 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 4 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Wall assembly | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 24 | 17.1% |
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 Kirtland mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 74 | 52.9% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 16 | 11.4% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 10 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Match | 10 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 2.9% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 11 | 7.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Kirtland departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Kirtland sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 74,869 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Natural | 23,220 | 38.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 10,133 | 36.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 7,271 | 33.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 4,781 | 34.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 4,033 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 3,888 | 33.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 2,905 | 36.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 2,744 | 29.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 2,601 | 30.1 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 2,381 | 32.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 1,550 | 31.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 1,360 | 29.9 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 | 87417 | 326 |
Six New Mexico cities with population within ±25% of Kirtland. 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.