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.
In 2025, fire departments serving Stayton responded to 71 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 68% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
471 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $2.2M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 103 | — | |
| 2022 | 115 | +11.7% | |
| 2023 | 111 | -3.5% | |
| 2024 | 71 | -36.0% | |
| 2025 | 71 | +0.0% |
For the 9 building fires Stayton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 107 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 | 24 | 22.4% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 12 | 11.2% | |
| 3 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 11 | 10.3% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 9 | 8.4% | |
| 5 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 8 | 7.5% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 5 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 4 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 3 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 3 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 3 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 25 | 23.4% |
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 Stayton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 40 | 37.4% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 14 | 13.1% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 14 | 13.1% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 9 | 8.4% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 6 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 3 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 3 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 2 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 10 | 9.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Stayton departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $1,000 | Cultivated vegetation, crop fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $500 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Stayton sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
6 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 366,572 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 | 29.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 138,054 | 39.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 11,513 | 46.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,508 | 40.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 2,810 | 36.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,584 | 30.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 2,171 | 43.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 2,033 | 34.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,508 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 1,070 | 27.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 790 | 32.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 695 | 37.7 mi |
Top 4 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 Stayton. 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.