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.
CACOOR
In 2025, fire departments serving Ordway responded to 36 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $30K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 56% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
146 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $176K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 13 | — | |
| 2022 | 30 | — | |
| 2023 | 32 | +6.7% | |
| 2024 | 35 | +9.4% | |
| 2025 | 36 | +2.9% |
* Well below Ordway'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 Ordway departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 42 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 | 9 | 21.4% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 7 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 5 | 11.9% | |
| 4 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 3 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Structural area, other | 2 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Other | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 8 | 19.0% |
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 Ordway mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 17 | 40.5% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 7 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 6 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Heat, spark from friction | 3 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Backfire from internal combustion engine | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Lightning | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1 | 2.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Ordway departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $2,500 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $2,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $300 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Ordway sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 211,435 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Natural | 45,814 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 35,583 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16,000 | 17.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14,726 | 33.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,000 | 36.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 10,000 | 34.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Recreation and ceremony | 9,523 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 9,089 | 43.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,900 | 0.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,288 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 6,000 | 41.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,528 | 27.0 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Colorado cities with population within ±25% of Ordway. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Ordway.
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.