In 2025, fire departments serving Montrose responded to 31 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $207K building blaze. 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 87% of all calls.
May peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
136 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $1.0M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 44 | — | |
| 2022 | 37 | -15.9% | |
| 2023 | 22 | -40.5% | |
| 2024* | 2 | — | |
| 2025 | 31 | — |
* Well below Montrose'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 Montrose departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 17 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 | Wall surface: exterior | 4 | 23.5% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 3 | 17.6% | |
| 3 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 5 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 9 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 10 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 2 | 11.8% |
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 Montrose mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 10 | 58.8% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 4 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Candle | 1 | 5.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Montrose departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $207,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $2,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $1,000 | Grass fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Montrose sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 18,517 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 8,513 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,550 | 42.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 1,299 | 30.0 mi | |
| 2004 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,000 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 420 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 336 | 35.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 320 | 44.2 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 320 | 30.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 306 | 33.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 280 | 36.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 260 | 41.5 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 35.3 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 | 55363 | 136 |
Six Minnesota cities with population within ±25% of Montrose. 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.