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 Vail responded to 124 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $6.0M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Carbon monoxide incident lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
637 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $18.2M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 135 | — | |
| 2022 | 140 | +3.7% | |
| 2023 | 125 | -10.7% | |
| 2024 | 113 | -9.6% | |
| 2025 | 124 | +9.7% |
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 179 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 86 | 48.0% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 12 | 6.7% | |
| 3 | Vehicle area, other | 9 | 5.0% | |
| 4 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 7 | 3.9% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 7 | 3.9% | |
| 6 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 6 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 6 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 5 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 4 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Undetermined | 4 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 33 | 18.4% |
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 Vail mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 46 | 25.7% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 37 | 20.7% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 19 | 10.6% | |
| 4 | Heat, spark from friction | 16 | 8.9% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 14 | 7.8% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 12 | 6.7% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 8 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 7 | 3.9% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 3 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 3 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 14 | 7.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Vail departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 98% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $6,000,000 | Building fires | Catastrophic | Investigated |
| 2 | $3,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $85,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $75,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $65,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $50,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $50,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Vail 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 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 297,858 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | 193,812 | 39.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 32,431 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 20,120 | 43.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14,833 | 21.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 13,023 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 4,400 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,070 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,400 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Smoking | 2,312 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,452 | 25.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 1,322 | 22.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 1,232 | 35.5 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Colorado 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.