In 2025, fire departments serving Bourbonnais responded to 276 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $183K 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 68% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,443 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $2.7M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 265 | — | |
| 2022 | 343 | +29.4% | |
| 2023 | 305 | -11.1% | |
| 2024 | 254 | -16.7% | |
| 2025 | 276 | +8.7% |
For the 42 building fires Bourbonnais departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 160 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 | 20.0% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 21 | 13.1% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 18 | 11.2% | |
| 4 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 10 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 7 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 7 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 6 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 6 | 3.8% | |
| 9 | Other | 5 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 5 | 3.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 43 | 26.9% |
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 Bourbonnais mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 89 | 55.6% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 10 | 6.2% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 9 | 5.6% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 9 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 7 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 6 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 6 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 5 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Chemical reaction | 4 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Heat source: other | 2 | 1.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 13 | 8.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bourbonnais departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 99% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $182,802 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $8,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $7,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $5,000 | Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bourbonnais sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
5 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 | 3 | |
| 10-19 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,306 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Natural | 600 | 23.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 396 | 42.5 mi | |
| 1993 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 341 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 291 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 274 | 43.8 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 253 | 40.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 244 | 42.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 232 | 19.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 216 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 204 | 41.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 191 | 42.9 mi | |
| 1994 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 190 | 41.2 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 | 60914 | 1,443 |
Six Illinois cities with population within ±25% of Bourbonnais. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Bourbonnais.
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.