In 2025, fire departments serving Calumet City responded to 1,076 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $250K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Cooking fire, confined to container lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 85% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
5,503 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $6.2M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,070 | — | |
| 2022 | 1,074 | +0.4% | |
| 2023 | 1,187 | +10.5% | |
| 2024 | 1,096 | -7.7% | |
| 2025 | 1,076 | -1.8% |
For the 55 building fires Calumet City departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 432 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 | 88 | 20.4% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 66 | 15.3% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 35 | 8.1% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 22 | 5.1% | |
| 5 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 18 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 18 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 17 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Cooking area, kitchen | 17 | 3.9% | |
| 9 | Wildland, woods | 15 | 3.5% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 14 | 3.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 122 | 28.2% |
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 Calumet City mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 271 | 62.7% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 17 | 3.9% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 16 | 3.7% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 14 | 3.2% | |
| 5 | Fireworks | 13 | 3.0% | |
| 6 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 12 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 12 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 10 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 10 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 8 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 49 | 11.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Calumet City departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 53% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $70,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $55,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Calumet City sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
8 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 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
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 | 41.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 396 | 13.9 mi | |
| 1993 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 341 | 13.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 291 | 13.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 274 | 15.0 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 253 | 13.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 244 | 13.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 232 | 36.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 216 | 13.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 204 | 12.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 191 | 14.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 190 | 12.1 mi |
Top 7 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 Calumet City. 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.