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In 2025, fire departments serving Westminster responded to 647 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $800K 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.
Jul peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,971 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $14.7M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 529 | — | |
| 2022 | 609 | +15.1% | |
| 2023 | 537 | -11.8% | |
| 2024 | 649 | +20.9% | |
| 2025 | 647 | -0.3% |
For the 75 building fires Westminster departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 726 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 | 109 | 15.0% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 102 | 14.0% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 71 | 9.8% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 54 | 7.4% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 47 | 6.5% | |
| 6 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 41 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 31 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Other | 25 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 24 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 22 | 3.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 200 | 27.5% |
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 Westminster mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 256 | 35.3% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 91 | 12.5% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 48 | 6.6% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 46 | 6.3% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 32 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 32 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 30 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 30 | 4.1% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 26 | 3.6% | |
| 10 | Hot ember or ash | 19 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 116 | 16.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Westminster departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 70% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $800,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $438,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $402,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Westminster sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
48 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 | 5 | |
| 30-39 | 14 | |
| 40-49 | 18 | |
| 50-59 | 8 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 110,191 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,699 | 43.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Recreation and ceremony | 11,875 | 40.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 10,800 | 37.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Recreation and ceremony | 10,599 | 41.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,106 | 25.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 6,382 | 20.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,200 | 14.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Equipment and vehicle use | 4,348 | 32.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 4,142 | 32.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 4,085 | 44.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3,869 | 24.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,498 | 42.3 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 Westminster. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Westminster.
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.