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.
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In 2025, fire departments serving Pueblo responded to 1,868 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 50% of all calls.
Jul peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
9,012 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $20.3M cumulative property loss. 6 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,659 | — | |
| 2022 | 1,949 | +17.5% | |
| 2023 | 1,628 | -16.5% | |
| 2024 | 1,908 | +17.2% | |
| 2025 | 1,868 | -2.1% |
For the 144 building fires Pueblo departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,463 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 | 258 | 17.6% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 146 | 10.0% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 114 | 7.8% | |
| 4 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 79 | 5.4% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 78 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 68 | 4.6% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 57 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Wall surface: exterior | 46 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 45 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Exterior, exposed surface | 44 | 3.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 528 | 36.1% |
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 Pueblo mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 669 | 45.7% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 85 | 5.8% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 77 | 5.3% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 76 | 5.2% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 72 | 4.9% | |
| 6 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 63 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 47 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Incendiary device | 45 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 43 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 37 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 249 | 17.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Pueblo departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 39% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $194,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $183,915 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $181,183 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $180,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $150,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Pueblo sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
62 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 8 | |
| 30-39 | 11 | |
| 40-49 | 18 | |
| 50-59 | 9 | |
| 60-69 | 7 | |
| 70-79 | 5 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 187,934 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 42,795 | 20.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 18,947 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 18,320 | 32.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 11,357 | 24.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9,636 | 20.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9,064 | 27.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,900 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,355 | 28.9 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,328 | 27.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 6,000 | 35.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,528 | 35.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,232 | 23.1 mi |
Top 8 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 Pueblo. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
5 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Pueblo.
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.