In 2025, fire departments serving Centralia responded to 201 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $239K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 63% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,298 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $7.5M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 254 | — | |
| 2022 | 301 | +18.5% | |
| 2023 | 276 | -8.3% | |
| 2024 | 266 | -3.6% | |
| 2025 | 201 | -24.4% |
For the 47 building fires Centralia departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 709 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 | 154 | 21.7% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 102 | 14.4% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 70 | 9.9% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 68 | 9.6% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 36 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 27 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 26 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Other | 25 | 3.5% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 22 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 15 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 164 | 23.1% |
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 Centralia mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 343 | 48.4% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 101 | 14.2% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 43 | 6.1% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 26 | 3.7% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 23 | 3.2% | |
| 6 | Fireworks | 22 | 3.1% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 21 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 19 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 18 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 12 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 81 | 11.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Centralia departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 82% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $239,400 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $175,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $63,100 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $57,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Centralia sits above 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,543 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 594 | 40.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 494 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 384 | 7.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 359 | 32.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 275 | 41.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 268 | 11.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 229 | 34.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 185 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 175 | 15.8 mi | |
| 1998 | Recreation and ceremony | 140 | 13.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 127 | 24.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 107 | 42.3 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Washington cities with population within ±25% of Centralia. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Centralia.
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.