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.
In 2025, fire departments serving Limon responded to 18 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 67% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
86 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $500K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 5 | — | |
| 2022 | 16 | — | |
| 2023 | 27 | +68.8% | |
| 2024 | 20 | -25.9% | |
| 2025 | 18 | -10.0% |
* Well below Limon'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 Limon 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 | Other | 9 | 36.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 5 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Vehicle area, other | 3 | 12.0% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 3 | 12.0% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 8.0% | |
| 6 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 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 Limon mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 10 | 40.0% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 9 | 36.0% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 8.0% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 4.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Limon sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 103,918 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 45,000 | 33.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,000 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 10,000 | 38.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,288 | 31.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 6,000 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 4,300 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,200 | 45.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,282 | 32.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,100 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,800 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 46.1 mi |
Top 3 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 Limon. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Limon.
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.