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In 2025, fire departments serving Wray responded to 46 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $160K 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 72% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
130 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $942K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022* | 2 | — | |
| 2023 | 33 | — | |
| 2024 | 49 | +48.5% | |
| 2025 | 46 | -6.1% |
* Well below Wray'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 1 building fires Wray departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 51 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 | 12 | 23.5% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 10 | 19.6% | |
| 3 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 6 | 11.8% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 4 | 7.8% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 3 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Entrance way, lobby | 2 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 2 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Exterior stairway, ramp, or fire escape | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Assembly area without fixed seats - 100+ persons | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 9 | 17.6% |
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 Wray mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 15 | 29.4% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 6 | 11.8% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 5 | 9.8% | |
| 4 | Heat, spark from friction | 5 | 9.8% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 4 | 7.8% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 4 | 7.8% | |
| 7 | Lightning | 4 | 7.8% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 3.9% | |
| 9 | Match | 2 | 3.9% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 3 | 5.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Wray departments in 2025. These 7 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $160,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $50,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $20,000 | Vehicle accident, general cleanup | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $1,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $200 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $200 | Camper or recreational vehicle (RV) fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Wray sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 58,147 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 | 24,000 | 12.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,000 | 30.6 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,000 | 16.0 mi | |
| 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2,570 | 25.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,500 | 15.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,800 | 36.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,783 | 20.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 1,200 | 39.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,150 | 27.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,000 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,000 | 4.7 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 | 80758 | 130 |
Six Colorado cities with population within ±25% of Wray. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
4 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Wray.
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.