In 2025, fire departments serving Bloomington responded to 720 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $400K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 68% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,373 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $9.0M cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 838 | — | |
| 2022 | 565 | -32.6% | |
| 2023 | 586 | +3.7% | |
| 2024 | 664 | +13.3% | |
| 2025 | 720 | +8.4% |
For the 62 building fires Bloomington departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 946 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 | Outside area, other | 173 | 18.3% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 166 | 17.5% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 97 | 10.3% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 81 | 8.6% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 63 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 48 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 44 | 4.7% | |
| 8 | Other | 26 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 24 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 23 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 201 | 21.2% |
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 Bloomington mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 311 | 32.9% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 119 | 12.6% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 72 | 7.6% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 54 | 5.7% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 45 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 45 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 39 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Arcing | 37 | 3.9% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 35 | 3.7% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 32 | 3.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 157 | 16.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bloomington departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 75% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $130,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $70,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bloomington sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
57 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 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 7 | |
| 30-39 | 16 | |
| 40-49 | 12 | |
| 50-59 | 8 | |
| 60-69 | 5 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 4 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,611 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 375 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 80 | 31.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 75 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 75 | 31.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 37.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 51 | 35.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 14.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Equipment and vehicle use | 50 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 32.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 15.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 43.3 mi |
Top 4 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Illinois cities with population within ±25% of Bloomington. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Bloomington.
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.