In 2025, fire departments serving Aurora responded to 35 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $290K 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 63% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
114 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $1.1M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 13 | — | |
| 2022 | 18 | — | |
| 2023 | 25 | +38.9% | |
| 2024 | 23 | -8.0% | |
| 2025 | 35 | +52.2% |
* Well below Aurora'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 9 building fires Aurora departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 22 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 | 7 | 31.8% | |
| 2 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 4 | 18.2% | |
| 3 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Function area, other | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 9 | Shipping/receiving area; loading area, dock or bay | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 10 | Outside area, other | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1 | 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 Aurora mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 13 | 59.1% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 5 | 22.7% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 4.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Aurora departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $290,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $290,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100 | Forest, woods or wildland fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Aurora sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 117,560 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Natural | 92,682 | 42.1 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 5,200 | 12.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 4,750 | 44.3 mi | |
| 1995 | Natural | 3,048 | 37.1 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,200 | 10.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 2,085 | 39.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 973 | 6.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 953 | 35.0 mi | |
| 1998 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 950 | 25.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 936 | 26.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 732 | 22.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 517 | 44.8 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 Minnesota cities with population within ±25% of Aurora. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.