In 2025, fire departments serving Delta Junction responded to 20 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $300K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 90% of all calls.
Nov peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
119 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $4.8M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 30 | — | |
| 2022 | 38 | +26.7% | |
| 2023 | 17 | -55.3% | |
| 2024* | 14 | — | |
| 2025 | 20 | — |
* Well below Delta Junction'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 7 building fires Delta Junction departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 62 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 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 7 | 11.3% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 7 | 11.3% | |
| 3 | Vehicle area, other | 5 | 8.1% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 8.1% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 5 | 8.1% | |
| 6 | Storage area, other | 4 | 6.5% | |
| 7 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 4 | 6.5% | |
| 8 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 4.8% | |
| 9 | Wildland, woods | 3 | 4.8% | |
| 10 | Function area, other | 2 | 3.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 17 | 27.4% |
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 Delta Junction mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 11 | 17.7% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 7 | 11.3% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 6 | 9.7% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 5 | 8.1% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 5 | 8.1% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 5 | 8.1% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 3 | 4.8% | |
| 9 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 3 | 4.8% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 3.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 12 | 19.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Delta Junction departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $7,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Delta Junction sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
8 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 787,435 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Natural | 175,815 | 24.9 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 67,338 | 14.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 66,560 | 21.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 64,834 | 22.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 54,217 | 25.3 mi | |
| 1998 | Natural | 53,720 | 12.1 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 49,786 | 21.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Firearms and explosives use | 38,398 | 21.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | 34,740 | 13.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 23,270 | 18.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 22,420 | 20.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 19,372 | 19.0 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 Alaska cities with population within ±25% of Delta Junction. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Delta Junction.
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.