In 2025, fire departments serving Vail responded to 106 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K 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 50% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
477 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $665K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 76 | — | |
| 2022 | 102 | +34.2% | |
| 2023 | 109 | +6.9% | |
| 2024 | 84 | -22.9% | |
| 2025 | 106 | +26.2% |
For the 10 building fires Vail departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 133 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 | Undetermined | 42 | 31.6% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 31 | 23.3% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 7 | 5.3% | |
| 4 | Vehicle area, other | 6 | 4.5% | |
| 5 | Other | 5 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 5 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Structural area, other | 4 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 4 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 23 | 17.3% |
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 Vail mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 81 | 60.9% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 7 | 5.3% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 6 | 4.5% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 6 | 4.5% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 3.0% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 4 | 3.0% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 4 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 4 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Lightning | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 11 | 8.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Vail departments in 2025. These 7 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $49,815 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $5,000 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $3,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $2,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $1 | Unauthorized burning | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $1 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Vail sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
105 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 | 9 | |
| 30-39 | 50 | |
| 40-49 | 43 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 593,973 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Natural | 119,978 | 28.1 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 82,440 | 28.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 68,079 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Fireworks | 46,991 | 18.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 38,179 | 37.5 mi | |
| 1993 | Natural | 35,696 | 35.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30,600 | 24.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 27,259 | 24.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 15,210 | 40.3 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 14,590 | 16.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | 12,015 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 10,775 | 41.4 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Arizona cities with population within ±25% of Vail. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Vail.
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.