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 Netarts responded to 33 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 85% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
58 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $9K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 8 | — | |
| 2022 | 11 | +37.5% | |
| 2023* | 4 | — | |
| 2024* | 2 | — | |
| 2025 | 33 | — |
* Well below Netarts'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 Netarts departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 9 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 | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Processing/manufacturing area, workroom | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 11.1% |
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 Netarts mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Fireworks | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 7 | Match | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 8 | Chemical, natural heat source, other | 1 | 11.1% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Netarts sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,606 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 | 2,552 | 29.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 301 | 7.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 281 | 28.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 254 | 24.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 215 | 26.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 211 | 32.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 202 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 143 | 27.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 140 | 32.0 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 130 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 126 | 35.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 117 | 33.3 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 Netarts. 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.