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 Salem responded to 832 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.7M 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 72% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
4,365 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $38.2M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,015 | — | |
| 2022 | 868 | -14.5% | |
| 2023 | 942 | +8.5% | |
| 2024 | 708 | -24.8% | |
| 2025 | 832 | +17.5% |
For the 128 building fires Salem departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 3,586 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 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 835 | 23.3% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 786 | 21.9% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 516 | 14.4% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 191 | 5.3% | |
| 5 | Railroad right of way: on or near | 180 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 139 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 83 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 76 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Undetermined | 70 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 54 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 656 | 18.3% |
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 Salem mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 2,371 | 66.1% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 167 | 4.7% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 138 | 3.8% | |
| 4 | Cigarette lighter | 104 | 2.9% | |
| 5 | Cigarette | 97 | 2.7% | |
| 6 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 93 | 2.6% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 79 | 2.2% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 75 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 65 | 1.8% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 61 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 336 | 9.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Salem departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 54% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,700,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,038,130 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $569,456 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $392,423 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $375,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Salem sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
41 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 | 5 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 11 | |
| 40-49 | 9 | |
| 50-59 | 4 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 6 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 221,530 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 | 193,573 | 41.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 7,500 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,508 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,584 | 30.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,552 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 2,033 | 45.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,508 | 42.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 1,070 | 41.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 790 | 41.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 532 | 22.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 497 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 376 | 26.0 mi |
Top 10 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 Salem. 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.