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 Tigard responded to 419 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $750K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Vehicle accident, general cleanup lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 64% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,122 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $7.7M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 411 | — | |
| 2022 | 403 | -1.9% | |
| 2023 | 463 | +14.9% | |
| 2024 | 426 | -8.0% | |
| 2025 | 419 | -1.6% |
For the 38 building fires Tigard departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 896 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 | 164 | 18.3% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 125 | 14.0% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 119 | 13.3% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 101 | 11.3% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 69 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 50 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 29 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 23 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 19 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 18 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 179 | 20.0% |
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 Tigard mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 428 | 47.8% | |
| 2 | Cigarette | 108 | 12.1% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 66 | 7.4% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 66 | 7.4% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 32 | 3.6% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 30 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 28 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 27 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 19 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 13 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 79 | 8.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Tigard departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 93% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $750,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $220,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $41,586 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $25,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $18,013 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $16,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Tigard sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
16 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 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 4 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 234,543 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 | 138,054 | 43.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Fireworks | 48,488 | 44.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Smoking | 24,400 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 7,500 | 11.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,508 | 33.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,584 | 19.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,508 | 20.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,000 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 790 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 532 | 26.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 497 | 24.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 39.6 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 Oregon cities with population within ±25% of Tigard. 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.