In 2025, fire departments serving Coulee City responded to 22 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 82% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
82 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $5K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 9 | — | |
| 2022 | 13 | — | |
| 2023 | 20 | +53.8% | |
| 2024 | 18 | -10.0% | |
| 2025 | 22 | +22.2% |
* Well below Coulee City'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 Coulee City departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 6 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 | 2 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 2 | 33.3% | |
| 3 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Wall assembly | 1 | 16.7% |
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 Coulee City mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 2 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 5 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 16.7% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Coulee City sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 864,311 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 223,731 | 32.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 88,483 | 37.5 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 80,053 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 76,817 | 15.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Natural | 44,446 | 38.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 37,266 | 37.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 36,775 | 47.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Firearms and explosives use | 26,805 | 36.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 23,324 | 32.7 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 22,155 | 36.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 20,080 | 25.5 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 19,090 | 40.6 mi |
Top 3 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 Coulee City. 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.