In 2025, fire departments serving Chandler responded to 84 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 57% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
514 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $2.5M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 39 | — | |
| 2022 | 148 | — | |
| 2023 | 147 | -0.7% | |
| 2024 | 96 | -34.7% | |
| 2025 | 84 | -12.5% |
* Well below Chandler's usual volume. That almost always means one or more departments didn't submit a full year to NFIRS, not that fires dropped, so no year-over-year change is shown for it.
For the 9 building fires Chandler departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 226 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 | 49 | 21.7% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 28 | 12.4% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 26 | 11.5% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 22 | 9.7% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 14 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 14 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 11 | 4.9% | |
| 8 | Other | 9 | 4.0% | |
| 9 | Cooking area, kitchen | 6 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 4 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 43 | 19.0% |
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 Chandler mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 87 | 38.5% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 25 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 16 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 14 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 12 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 11 | 4.9% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 9 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Arcing | 9 | 4.0% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 7 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 6 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 30 | 13.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Chandler departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 98% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Power line down | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $150,000 | Grass fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $20,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Chandler sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 279,456 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Smoking | 58,501 | 30.1 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 26,000 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 21,860 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 16,423 | 21.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 14,000 | 42.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9,600 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 9,429 | 38.9 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 9,080 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,954 | 39.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 8,792 | 37.8 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,600 | 35.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,500 | 38.4 mi |
Top 9 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Oklahoma cities with population within ±25% of Chandler. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Chandler.
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.