In 2025, fire departments serving Bisbee responded to 100 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K 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 43% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
380 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $1.6M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 7 | — | |
| 2022 | 86 | — | |
| 2023 | 94 | +9.3% | |
| 2024 | 93 | -1.1% | |
| 2025 | 100 | +7.5% |
* Well below Bisbee'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 Bisbee departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 127 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 | 32 | 25.2% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 21 | 16.5% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 12 | 9.4% | |
| 4 | Other | 10 | 7.9% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 9 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 7 | 5.5% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 5 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 3.9% | |
| 9 | Cooking area, kitchen | 4 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Roof surface: exterior | 3 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 19 | 15.0% |
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 Bisbee mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 80 | 63.0% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 7 | 5.5% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 6 | 4.7% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 3.1% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 4 | 3.1% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 4 | 3.1% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Lightning | 3 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 12 | 9.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bisbee departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 97% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $5,000 | Fire in portable building, fixed location | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Natural vegetation fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bisbee sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 249,105 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 38,179 | 40.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30,526 | 19.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 27,720 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Recreation and ceremony | 16,802 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 15,210 | 41.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | 12,015 | 31.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,950 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 10,775 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,610 | 37.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,500 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,980 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | 7,049 | 29.3 mi |
Top 3 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 Bisbee. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Bisbee.
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.