In 2025, fire departments serving Arivaca responded to 14 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $170K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 86% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
92 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $571K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 10 | — | |
| 2022 | 23 | — | |
| 2023 | 36 | +56.5% | |
| 2024* | 9 | — | |
| 2025 | 14 | — |
* Well below Arivaca'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 5 building fires Arivaca departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 57 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 | Undetermined | 16 | 28.1% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 11 | 19.3% | |
| 3 | Wildland, woods | 9 | 15.8% | |
| 4 | Other | 4 | 7.0% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Function area, other | 2 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 2 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Entrance way, lobby | 1 | 1.8% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 1.8% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 7 | 12.3% |
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 Arivaca mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 24 | 42.1% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 5 | 8.8% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 5 | 8.8% | |
| 4 | Match | 5 | 8.8% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 3 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 3.5% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 2 | 3.5% | |
| 10 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 6 | 10.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Arivaca departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $170,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100 | Trash or rubbish fire, contained | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Arivaca sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
23 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 | 9 | |
| 40-49 | 8 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 362,484 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 68,079 | 8.3 mi | |
| 2017 | Fireworks | 46,991 | 29.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 38,179 | 41.1 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 23,668 | 24.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 23,183 | 10.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16,369 | 20.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 15,405 | 21.1 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 10,775 | 33.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,610 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9,711 | 18.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9,357 | 19.8 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9,200 | 35.4 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Arizona cities with population within ±25% of Arivaca. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Arivaca.
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.