Senators Warn Federal Firefighting Budget Nearly Exhausted With Fire Season Not Over
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In 2025, fire departments serving Las Animas responded to 41 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 71% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
176 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $100K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 5 | — | |
| 2022* | 13 | — | |
| 2023 | 67 | — | |
| 2024 | 50 | -25.4% | |
| 2025 | 41 | -18.0% |
* Well below Las Animas'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 Las Animas departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 92 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 | 15 | 16.3% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 14 | 15.2% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 12 | 13.0% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 11 | 12.0% | |
| 5 | Other | 9 | 9.8% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 7 | 7.6% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 4 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 4 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Exterior, exposed surface | 2 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Railroad right of way: on or near | 2 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 12 | 13.0% |
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 Las Animas mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hot ember or ash | 23 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 19 | 20.7% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 12 | 13.0% | |
| 4 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 6 | 6.5% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 5 | 5.4% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 5 | 5.4% | |
| 7 | Heat, spark from friction | 3 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 3 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Arcing | 2 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 2 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 12 | 13.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Las Animas sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 217,859 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Natural | 45,814 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 35,583 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16,000 | 19.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 15,000 | 46.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14,726 | 3.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 13,312 | 43.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Recreation and ceremony | 9,523 | 37.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 9,089 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,900 | 31.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,000 | 47.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Natural | 4,521 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 4,500 | 26.3 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Colorado cities with population within ±25% of Las Animas. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Las Animas.
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.