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 Lakeview responded to 52 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 75% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
186 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $100K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 50 | — | |
| 2022* | 22 | — | |
| 2023 | 31 | — | |
| 2024 | 31 | +0.0% | |
| 2025 | 52 | +67.7% |
* Well below Lakeview'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 4 building fires Lakeview departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 72 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 | 24 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 9 | 12.5% | |
| 3 | Other | 6 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 4 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 3 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 3 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 3 | 4.2% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 3 | 4.2% | |
| 10 | Storage area, other | 2 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 12 | 16.7% |
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 Lakeview mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 28 | 38.9% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 11 | 15.3% | |
| 3 | Match | 7 | 9.7% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 6 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 5 | 6.9% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 3 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Candle | 2 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 1.4% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 5 | 6.9% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Lakeview sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 458,402 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Natural | 92,977 | 23.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 59,061 | 39.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50,951 | 28.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 45,690 | 40.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 33,894 | 42.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Natural | 30,568 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 24,370 | 31.3 mi | |
| 2019 | Natural | 23,400 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Natural | 15,233 | 34.8 mi | |
| 1992 | Natural | 10,706 | 31.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Equipment and vehicle use | 10,121 | 30.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 8,121 | 17.2 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 | 97630 | 186 |
Six Oregon cities with population within ±25% of Lakeview. 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.