In 2025, fire departments serving Montrose responded to 15 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 53% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
40 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 13 | — | |
| 2022* | 2 | — | |
| 2023 | 8 | — | |
| 2024* | 2 | — | |
| 2025 | 15 | — |
* 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 2 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 7 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 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 2 | 28.6% | |
| 2 | Other | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Machinery room or area; elevator machinery room | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 1 | 14.3% |
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 Montrose mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 4 | 57.1% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 2 | 28.6% | |
| 3 | Incendiary device | 1 | 14.3% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Montrose sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
6 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 17,709 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Smoking | 2,855 | 42.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 2,759 | 36.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,028 | 36.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 998 | 42.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Smoking | 866 | 43.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Smoking | 700 | 8.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 9.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 552 | 10.3 mi | |
| 2001 | Smoking | 550 | 36.0 mi | |
| 1994 | Smoking | 500 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 485 | 12.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 481 | 4.5 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 New York cities with population within ±25% of Montrose. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Montrose.
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.