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In 2025, fire departments serving Penrose responded to 46 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $600K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 61% of all calls.
May peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
214 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.6M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 3 | — | |
| 2022 | 57 | — | |
| 2023 | 50 | -12.3% | |
| 2024 | 58 | +16.0% | |
| 2025 | 46 | -20.7% |
* Well below Penrose'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 5 building fires Penrose departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 83 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 | 13 | 15.7% | |
| 2 | Other | 9 | 10.8% | |
| 3 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 9 | 10.8% | |
| 4 | Vehicle area, other | 7 | 8.4% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 7 | 8.4% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 6 | 7.2% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 4 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 4 | 4.8% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 3 | 3.6% | |
| 10 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 19 | 22.9% |
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 Penrose mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 30 | 36.1% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 11 | 13.3% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 6 | 7.2% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 6 | 7.2% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 6 | 7.2% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 5 | 6.0% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 5 | 6.0% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 4.8% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 3 | 3.6% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 5 | 6.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Penrose departments in 2025. These 7 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $600,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $25,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $12,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $3,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $2,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $1,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $500 | Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Penrose sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 347,810 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 137,760 | 49.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 42,795 | 21.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 18,947 | 32.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 18,320 | 21.0 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16,580 | 41.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 16,562 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 11,357 | 17.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9,636 | 17.5 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9,064 | 12.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,355 | 31.1 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,328 | 21.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 6,000 | 45.2 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 | 81240 | 214 |
Six Colorado cities with population within ±25% of Penrose. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Penrose.
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.