In 2025, fire departments serving Austin responded to 39 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K 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 67% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
162 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $684K cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 14 | — | |
| 2022 | 26 | — | |
| 2023 | 39 | +50.0% | |
| 2024 | 44 | +12.8% | |
| 2025 | 39 | -11.4% |
* Well below Austin'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 Austin departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 65 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 | 27 | 41.5% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 7.7% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 4.6% | |
| 4 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 3 | 4.6% | |
| 5 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 3 | 4.6% | |
| 6 | Wall assembly | 3 | 4.6% | |
| 7 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 3 | 4.6% | |
| 8 | Structural area, other | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 12 | 18.5% |
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 Austin mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 46 | 70.8% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 11 | 16.9% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 4.6% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 6 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 1.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Austin departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,234 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Austin sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,801 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,549 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 870 | 27.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 450 | 27.3 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 354 | 33.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 27.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 280 | 28.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 220 | 27.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 200 | 27.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 182 | 24.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 165 | 38.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 157 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 156 | 39.3 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 | 47102 | 162 |
Six Indiana cities with population within ±25% of Austin. 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.