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In 2025, fire departments serving Wellington responded to 58 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 53% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
390 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $1.8M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 85 | — | |
| 2022 | 118 | +38.8% | |
| 2023* | 42 | — | |
| 2024 | 87 | — | |
| 2025 | 58 | -33.3% |
* Well below Wellington's usual volume. That almost always means one or more departments didn't submit a full year to NFIRS, not that fires dropped, so no year-over-year change is shown for it.
For the 7 building fires Wellington departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 194 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 | Outside area, other | 38 | 19.6% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 27 | 13.9% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 22 | 11.3% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 16 | 8.2% | |
| 5 | Other | 14 | 7.2% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 10 | 5.2% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 9 | 4.6% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 9 | 4.6% | |
| 9 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 4 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 40 | 20.6% |
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 Wellington mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 79 | 40.7% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 14 | 7.2% | |
| 3 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 14 | 7.2% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 10 | 5.2% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 9 | 4.6% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 9 | 4.6% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 8 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 7 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 6 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 33 | 17.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Wellington departments in 2025. These 7 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $5,000 | Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $1,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $500 | Fire in portable building, fixed location | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $200 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Wellington sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
5 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 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 390,814 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 | 208,913 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 87,275 | 22.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,699 | 30.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Recreation and ceremony | 10,599 | 24.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,106 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 8,908 | 11.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | 7,685 | 13.9 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,400 | 27.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Equipment and vehicle use | 4,348 | 34.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3,869 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,498 | 37.5 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,014 | 25.1 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 Colorado cities with population within ±25% of Wellington. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Wellington.
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.