In 2025, fire departments serving South Valley responded to 32 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1K 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.
May peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
95 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $69K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 8 | — | |
| 2022 | 18 | — | |
| 2023 | 21 | +16.7% | |
| 2024 | 16 | -23.8% | |
| 2025 | 32 | +100.0% |
* Well below South Valley'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 South Valley departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 31 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 8 | 25.8% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 6 | 19.4% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 4 | 12.9% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 4 | 12.9% | |
| 5 | Other | 2 | 6.5% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 2 | 6.5% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Structural area, other | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 10 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1 | 3.2% |
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 South Valley mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 21 | 67.7% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 2 | 6.5% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 6.5% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 6 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Fireworks | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 1 | 3.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by South Valley departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $1 | Natural vegetation fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1 | Natural vegetation fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. South Valley sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 92,680 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 17,912 | 22.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Recreation and ceremony | 13,709 | 27.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 8,000 | 32.3 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 7,836 | 43.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,969 | 32.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Natural | 5,478 | 23.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 3,840 | 45.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,000 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,700 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,560 | 48.1 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,500 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 2,213 | 10.9 mi |
Top 5 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 South Valley. 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.