In 2025, fire departments serving Navajo responded to 11 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 100% of all calls.
May peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
32 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 9 | — | |
| 2022* | 3 | — | |
| 2023* | 0 | — | |
| 2024 | 9 | — | |
| 2025 | 11 | +22.2% |
* Well below Navajo'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 7 building fires Navajo departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 20 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 | Undetermined | 10 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 5 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Structural area, other | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Multiple areas | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Vacant structural area | 1 | 5.0% |
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 Navajo mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 14 | 70.0% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 5.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Navajo sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 41,758 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 14,712 | 9.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 12,861 | 19.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 3,392 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 2,780 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 1,655 | 24.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | 923 | 24.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 766 | 24.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 720 | 41.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 600 | 6.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 569 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 445 | 15.4 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 360 | 47.4 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 | 87328 | 32 |
Six New Mexico cities with population within ±25% of Navajo. 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.