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 Mulino responded to 29 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $5K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 76% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
203 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $395K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 58 | — | |
| 2022 | 53 | -8.6% | |
| 2023 | 39 | -26.4% | |
| 2024* | 24 | — | |
| 2025 | 29 | — |
* Well below Mulino'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 Mulino departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 43 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 | Outside area, other | 7 | 16.3% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 6 | 14.0% | |
| 3 | Other | 4 | 9.3% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 4 | 9.3% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 4 | 9.3% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 3 | 7.0% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 2 | 4.7% | |
| 8 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Processing/manufacturing area, workroom | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 10 | 23.3% |
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 Mulino mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 19 | 44.2% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 5 | 11.6% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 4 | 9.3% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 3 | 7.0% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 7.0% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 2 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Backfire from internal combustion engine | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 3 | 7.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Mulino departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $4,590 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $800 | Special outside fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Mulino sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 464,605 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 | 193,573 | 33.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 138,054 | 27.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Fireworks | 48,488 | 42.5 mi | |
| 1992 | Smoking | 24,400 | 43.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 11,513 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 7,500 | 22.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 6,304 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Natural | 6,103 | 45.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,508 | 18.7 mi | |
| 2008 | Natural | 3,280 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 2,810 | 35.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,584 | 1.7 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 Oregon cities with population within ±25% of Mulino. 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.