In 2025, fire departments serving Alsip responded to 302 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $250K 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 63% of all calls.
May peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,200 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $5.9M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 223 | — | |
| 2022 | 231 | +3.6% | |
| 2023 | 226 | -2.2% | |
| 2024 | 218 | -3.5% | |
| 2025 | 302 | +38.5% |
For the 39 building fires Alsip departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 268 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 | 56 | 20.9% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 47 | 17.5% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 32 | 11.9% | |
| 4 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 16 | 6.0% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 13 | 4.9% | |
| 6 | Processing/manufacturing area, workroom | 12 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Exterior, exposed surface | 9 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Other | 8 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 8 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 7 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 60 | 22.4% |
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 Alsip mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 158 | 59.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 28 | 10.4% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 17 | 6.3% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 9 | 3.4% | |
| 5 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 9 | 3.4% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 8 | 3.0% | |
| 7 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 6 | 2.2% | |
| 8 | Arcing | 5 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 4 | 1.5% | |
| 10 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 20 | 7.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Alsip departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 68% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $250,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $200,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $80,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $75,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $70,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Alsip sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
39 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 | 6 | |
| 30-39 | 13 | |
| 40-49 | 10 | |
| 50-59 | 5 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,306 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Natural | 600 | 35.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 396 | 23.9 mi | |
| 1993 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 341 | 23.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 291 | 23.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 274 | 24.9 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 253 | 23.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 244 | 23.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 232 | 30.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 216 | 24.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 204 | 22.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 191 | 24.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 190 | 22.2 mi |
Top 9 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Illinois cities with population within ±25% of Alsip. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Alsip.
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.