In 2025, fire departments serving Bethel responded to 40 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1K 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 60% of all calls.
May peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
204 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $4.0M cumulative property loss. 6 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 35 | — | |
| 2022 | 45 | +28.6% | |
| 2023 | 34 | -24.4% | |
| 2024 | 50 | +47.1% | |
| 2025 | 40 | -20.0% |
For the 14 building fires Bethel departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 133 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 | 26 | 19.5% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 10 | 7.5% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 9 | 6.8% | |
| 4 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 8 | 6.0% | |
| 5 | Entrance way, lobby | 6 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 6 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Conduit, pipe, utility, or ventilation shaft | 6 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 6 | 4.5% | |
| 9 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 5 | 3.8% | |
| 10 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 3.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 46 | 34.6% |
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 Bethel mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 63 | 47.4% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 14 | 10.5% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 10 | 7.5% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 8 | 6.0% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 8 | 6.0% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 4 | 3.0% | |
| 7 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 4 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Molten, hot material | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Conducted heat from another fire | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 13 | 9.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bethel departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bethel sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
11 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 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 5 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 100,246 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Natural | 41,628 | 44.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 23,241 | 17.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 13,932 | 46.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 10,766 | 32.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 4,016 | 39.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 1,320 | 23.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 779 | 28.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 773 | 28.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 646 | 32.3 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 613 | 24.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 567 | 40.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 446 | 34.1 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 | 99559 | 204 |
Six Alaska cities with population within ±25% of Bethel. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Bethel.
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.