In 2025, fire departments serving Placitas responded to 14 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1K 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 86% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
67 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $402K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 8 | — | |
| 2022 | 21 | — | |
| 2023 | 15 | -28.6% | |
| 2024 | 9 | -40.0% | |
| 2025 | 14 | +55.6% |
* Well below Placitas'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 1 building fires Placitas departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 23 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 | 4 | 17.4% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 4 | 17.4% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 13.0% | |
| 4 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Storage area, other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 3 | 13.0% |
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 Placitas mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 6 | 26.1% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 3 | 13.0% | |
| 3 | Match | 3 | 13.0% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 6 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 10 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1 | 4.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Placitas departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Placitas sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 344,022 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 156,593 | 34.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 47,650 | 36.5 mi | |
| 2013 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 23,938 | 40.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 17,912 | 35.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Recreation and ceremony | 16,575 | 31.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Recreation and ceremony | 13,709 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,112 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 8,000 | 42.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Natural | 5,478 | 38.3 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 5,185 | 49.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Natural | 4,303 | 30.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 4,150 | 37.0 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 New Mexico cities with population within ±25% of Placitas. 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.