In 2025, fire departments serving Cedar City responded to 355 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $300K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Vehicle accident, general cleanup lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 58% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,540 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $4.0M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 257 | — | |
| 2022 | 291 | +13.2% | |
| 2023 | 284 | -2.4% | |
| 2024 | 353 | +24.3% | |
| 2025 | 355 | +0.6% |
For the 10 building fires Cedar City departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 489 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 71 | 14.5% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 56 | 11.5% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 53 | 10.8% | |
| 4 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 39 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 37 | 7.6% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 36 | 7.4% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 32 | 6.5% | |
| 8 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 19 | 3.9% | |
| 9 | Wildland, woods | 12 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Structural area, other | 10 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 124 | 25.4% |
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 Cedar City mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 149 | 30.5% | |
| 2 | Fireworks | 55 | 11.2% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 45 | 9.2% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 35 | 7.2% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 30 | 6.1% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 26 | 5.3% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 21 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 18 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Molten, hot material | 14 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 11 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 85 | 17.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Cedar City departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 94% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $12,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $12,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $10,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $5,000 | Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Cedar City sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
24 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 | 8 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 4 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 330,942 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 71,675 | 14.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 19,778 | 30.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Natural | 19,151 | 22.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 17,632 | 29.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 14,656 | 41.6 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 12,607 | 23.5 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 12,286 | 29.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Fireworks | 11,993 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Recreation and ceremony | 11,771 | 26.7 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 10,700 | 48.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 10,476 | 45.2 mi | |
| 2004 | Natural | 10,000 | 46.0 mi |
Top 6 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Utah cities with population within ±25% of Cedar 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.