In 2025, fire departments serving Colfax responded to 18 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K 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 56% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
88 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $575K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 19 | — | |
| 2022* | 9 | — | |
| 2023 | 25 | — | |
| 2024 | 17 | -32.0% | |
| 2025 | 18 | +5.9% |
* Well below Colfax'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 1 building fires Colfax departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 22 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 | 11 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 4 | 18.2% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 13.6% | |
| 4 | Other | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 5 | Storage area, other | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Duct: hvac, cable, exhaust, heating, or AC | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 4.5% |
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 Colfax mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 12 | 54.5% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Lightning | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 4.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Colfax departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Cultivated grain or crop fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,000 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $1,000 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Colfax sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,261 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 80 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 75 | 14.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 51 | 39.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 31.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Equipment and vehicle use | 50 | 40.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 16.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 9.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 29.1 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 40.8 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 61728 | 88 |
Six Illinois cities with population within ±25% of Colfax. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Colfax.
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.