In 2025, fire departments serving Bloomington responded to 591 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K 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 70% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,041 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $6.8M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 547 | — | |
| 2022 | 556 | +1.6% | |
| 2023 | 634 | +14.0% | |
| 2024 | 713 | +12.5% | |
| 2025 | 591 | -17.1% |
For the 36 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 715 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 | 128 | 17.9% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 106 | 14.8% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 98 | 13.7% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 46 | 6.4% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 38 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 27 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 21 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 20 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 16 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 16 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 199 | 27.8% |
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 Bloomington mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 383 | 53.6% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 61 | 8.5% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 47 | 6.6% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 41 | 5.7% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 31 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 24 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 22 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 22 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 19 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Heat source: other | 12 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 53 | 7.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bloomington departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 79% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $175,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $155,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $125,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $70,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bloomington sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
12 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 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 5 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 20,963 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 8,513 | 34.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,909 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,550 | 33.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 1,299 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2004 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,000 | 4.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 420 | 39.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 336 | 32.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 306 | 30.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 290 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 260 | 36.9 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 23.1 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Minnesota cities with population within ±25% of Bloomington. 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.