In 2025, fire departments serving Chewelah responded to 24 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $8K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 75% of all calls.
Dec peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
134 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $248K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 42 | — | |
| 2022 | 25 | -40.5% | |
| 2023 | 28 | +12.0% | |
| 2024* | 15 | — | |
| 2025 | 24 | — |
* Well below Chewelah'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 4 building fires Chewelah departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 73 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 | 27 | 37.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 8 | 11.0% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 7 | 9.6% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 5 | 6.8% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 5 | 6.8% | |
| 6 | Other | 4 | 5.5% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 4 | 5.5% | |
| 8 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 3 | 4.1% | |
| 9 | Function area, other | 3 | 4.1% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 5 | 6.8% |
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 Chewelah mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 21 | 28.8% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 10 | 13.7% | |
| 3 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 10 | 13.7% | |
| 4 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 8 | 11.0% | |
| 5 | Lightning | 5 | 6.8% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 5.5% | |
| 7 | Match | 4 | 5.5% | |
| 8 | Fireworks | 3 | 4.1% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 5 | 6.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Chewelah departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $8,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Chewelah sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 447,024 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 127,430 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 64,007 | 30.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 54,354 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Natural | 44,446 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 19,005 | 21.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 18,117 | 36.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 13,105 | 39.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 12,764 | 28.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,797 | 25.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 10,580 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 10,500 | 44.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 8,615 | 36.3 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 Chewelah. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Chewelah.
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.