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In 2025, fire departments serving Wiggins responded to 41 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $15K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 66% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
132 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $45K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 17 | — | |
| 2022* | 10 | — | |
| 2023* | 2 | — | |
| 2024 | 62 | — | |
| 2025 | 41 | -33.9% |
* Well below Wiggins'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 2 building fires Wiggins departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 44 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 | 14 | 31.8% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 10 | 22.7% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 6 | 13.6% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 11.4% | |
| 5 | Other | 2 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Sales area, showroom (exclude display window) | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 7 | Storage area, other | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 2 | 4.5% |
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 Wiggins mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 12 | 27.3% | |
| 2 | Chemical reaction | 6 | 13.6% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 5 | 11.4% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 3 | 6.8% | |
| 6 | Match | 3 | 6.8% | |
| 7 | Lightning | 3 | 6.8% | |
| 8 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 2 | 4.5% | |
| 9 | Heat source: other | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 4 | 9.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Wiggins departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $200 | Cultivated vegetation, crop fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Wiggins sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 91,419 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 45,000 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,699 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 4,300 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,200 | 26.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 3,713 | 7.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 22.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 42.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 28.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,800 | 35.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 1,500 | 45.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,268 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2019 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1,028 | 32.7 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 80654 | 132 |
Six Colorado cities with population within ±25% of Wiggins. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Wiggins.
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.