In 2025, fire departments serving Chicago responded to 24,450 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $3.5M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
118,637 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $107.5M cumulative property loss. 117 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 22,915 | — | |
| 2022 | 22,782 | -0.6% | |
| 2023 | 24,062 | +5.6% | |
| 2024 | 24,428 | +1.5% | |
| 2025 | 24,450 | +0.1% |
For the 1,392 building fires Chicago departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 20,084 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 | 8,543 | 42.5% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2,197 | 10.9% | |
| 3 | Vehicle area, other | 1,043 | 5.2% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 971 | 4.8% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 873 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 823 | 4.1% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 526 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Other | 458 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 426 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 332 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 3,892 | 19.4% |
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 Chicago mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 15,107 | 75.2% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 959 | 4.8% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 952 | 4.7% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 601 | 3.0% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 502 | 2.5% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 299 | 1.5% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 248 | 1.2% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 178 | 0.9% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 165 | 0.8% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 161 | 0.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 912 | 4.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Chicago departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 47% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $3,516,463 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Chicago sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
1,042 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 | 95 | |
| 10-19 | 32 | |
| 20-29 | 82 | |
| 30-39 | 222 | |
| 40-49 | 177 | |
| 50-59 | 199 | |
| 60-69 | 125 | |
| 70-79 | 65 | |
| 80+ | 45 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 6,252 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 750 | 39.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 600 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 39.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 396 | 26.3 mi | |
| 1993 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 341 | 26.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 291 | 25.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 274 | 26.8 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 253 | 27.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 244 | 26.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 232 | 41.3 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 216 | 26.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 204 | 25.5 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
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.