In 2025, fire departments serving Bemidji responded to 237 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $400K 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 57% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
958 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $5.9M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 225 | — | |
| 2022 | 171 | -24.0% | |
| 2023 | 160 | -6.4% | |
| 2024 | 165 | +3.1% | |
| 2025 | 237 | +43.6% |
For the 25 building fires Bemidji departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 264 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 | 51 | 19.3% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 27 | 10.2% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 16 | 6.1% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 16 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 15 | 5.7% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 15 | 5.7% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 13 | 4.9% | |
| 8 | Wall surface: exterior | 10 | 3.8% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 9 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 8 | 3.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 84 | 31.8% |
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 Bemidji mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 111 | 42.0% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 26 | 9.8% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 19 | 7.2% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 11 | 4.2% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 10 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 10 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 9 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Radiated heat from another fire | 9 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 7 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 7 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 45 | 17.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bemidji departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 77% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $143,800 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $120,700 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $100,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bemidji sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
10 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 | 5 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 102,299 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 19,782 | 38.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,480 | 36.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,455 | 40.4 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,100 | 47.4 mi | |
| 1998 | Debris and open burning | 6,000 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 5,157 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,120 | 38.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,200 | 43.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,650 | 37.5 mi | |
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,500 | 32.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,250 | 36.5 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 2,560 | 45.3 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 | 56601 | 957 |
Six Minnesota cities with population within ±25% of Bemidji. 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.