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In 2025, fire departments serving Meeker responded to 58 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.0M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Forest, woods or wildland fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 78% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
239 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $9.8M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 62 | — | |
| 2022* | 1 | — | |
| 2023 | 51 | — | |
| 2024 | 67 | +31.4% | |
| 2025 | 58 | -13.4% |
* Well below Meeker'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 3 building fires Meeker departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 118 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 | Wildland, woods | 47 | 39.8% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 25 | 21.2% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 11 | 9.3% | |
| 4 | Other | 5 | 4.2% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 5 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Storage area, other | 4 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 3 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 11 | 9.3% |
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 Meeker mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lightning | 39 | 33.1% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 32 | 27.1% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 10 | 8.5% | |
| 4 | Match | 10 | 8.5% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 6 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Chemical reaction | 4 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 8 | 6.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Meeker departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 87% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000,000 | Forest, woods or wildland fire | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,000,000 | Natural vegetation fire, other | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,000,000 | Forest, woods or wildland fire | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $1,000,000 | Forest, woods or wildland fire | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $1,000,000 | Forest, woods or wildland fire | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $1,000,000 | Forest, woods or wildland fire | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $1,000,000 | Forest, woods or wildland fire | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $1,000,000 | Forest, woods or wildland fire | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Meeker sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 239,607 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 32,431 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Equipment and vehicle use | 19,569 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Recreation and ceremony | 18,804 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 17,056 | 32.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 13,775 | 30.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 13,493 | 33.0 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,410 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,209 | 43.0 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9,600 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 8,603 | 32.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 7,917 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2004 | Natural | 7,815 | 17.0 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 | 81641 | 239 |
Six Colorado cities with population within ±25% of Meeker. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Meeker.
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.