In 2025, fire departments serving La Plata responded to 18 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Gasoline or other flammable liquid spill lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
34 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $15K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 2 | — | |
| 2022* | 1 | — | |
| 2023* | 1 | — | |
| 2024 | 12 | — | |
| 2025 | 18 | +50.0% |
* Well below La Plata'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 2 building fires La Plata departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 12 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 | 6 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Function area, other | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Storage area, other | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 8.3% |
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 La Plata mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 5 | 41.7% | |
| 2 | Chemical reaction | 2 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 2 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 8.3% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. La Plata sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 204,396 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 | 73,121 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 54,129 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 23,220 | 30.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 10,133 | 26.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 7,271 | 20.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 4,781 | 28.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,593 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 3,888 | 30.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 2,905 | 26.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 2,744 | 23.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 2,601 | 23.2 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 2,381 | 23.3 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 | 87418 | 34 |
Six New Mexico cities with population within ±25% of La Plata. 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.