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In 2025, fire departments serving Coos Bay responded to 143 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $25K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 58% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
889 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $2.0M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 151 | — | |
| 2022 | 246 | +62.9% | |
| 2023 | 285 | +15.9% | |
| 2024* | 64 | — | |
| 2025 | 143 | — |
* Well below Coos Bay'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 11 building fires Coos Bay departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 268 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 | 71 | 26.5% | |
| 2 | Other | 32 | 11.9% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 25 | 9.3% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 17 | 6.3% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 16 | 6.0% | |
| 6 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 11 | 4.1% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 10 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 10 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 9 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 8 | 3.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 59 | 22.0% |
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 Coos Bay mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 111 | 41.4% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 38 | 14.2% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 25 | 9.3% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 22 | 8.2% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 10 | 3.7% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 9 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 7 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 7 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 5 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 5 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 29 | 10.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Coos Bay departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 99% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $2,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $1,000 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $500 | Trash or rubbish fire, contained | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Coos Bay sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 55,719 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Natural | 17,524 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16,436 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 14,772 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,845 | 12.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 790 | 46.4 mi | |
| 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | 700 | 19.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 650 | 46.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 380 | 13.9 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 365 | 47.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 347 | 17.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 331 | 36.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 307 | 48.2 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 | 97420 | 889 |
Six Oregon cities with population within ±25% of Coos Bay. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.