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.
CACOOR
In 2025, fire departments serving Springfield responded to 337 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $400K 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 56% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,520 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $9.8M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 329 | — | |
| 2022 | 259 | -21.3% | |
| 2023 | 271 | +4.6% | |
| 2024 | 324 | +19.6% | |
| 2025 | 337 | +4.0% |
For the 47 building fires Springfield departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 661 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 | 136 | 20.6% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 68 | 10.3% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 62 | 9.4% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 61 | 9.2% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 30 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 28 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 26 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 22 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 20 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 18 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 190 | 28.7% |
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 Springfield mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 282 | 42.7% | |
| 2 | Cigarette | 56 | 8.5% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 50 | 7.6% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 44 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 38 | 5.7% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 35 | 5.3% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 27 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 24 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 17 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 13 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 75 | 11.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Springfield departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 59% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $175,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $120,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Springfield sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
7 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 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 230,327 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 | 173,393 | 38.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Smoking | 11,555 | 37.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 10,114 | 20.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Smoking | 8,709 | 40.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Natural | 6,033 | 29.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,964 | 20.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 3,587 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 1,586 | 46.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 1,335 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 1,070 | 41.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 804 | 40.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 790 | 32.4 mi |
Top 6 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 Springfield. 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.