In 2025, fire departments serving Duluth responded to 874 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $3.8M 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 59% of all calls.
May peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
4,405 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $18.0M cumulative property loss. 7 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 890 | — | |
| 2022 | 893 | +0.3% | |
| 2023 | 860 | -3.7% | |
| 2024 | 888 | +3.3% | |
| 2025 | 874 | -1.6% |
For the 95 building fires Duluth departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,175 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 | 204 | 17.4% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 153 | 13.0% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 147 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 94 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 47 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 44 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 36 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 34 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Interior stairway or ramp | 33 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 33 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 350 | 29.8% |
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 Duluth mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 614 | 52.3% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 137 | 11.7% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 61 | 5.2% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 57 | 4.9% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 44 | 3.7% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 38 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 36 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 32 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 26 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 23 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 107 | 9.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Duluth departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 80% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $3,800,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $600,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $228,800 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $145,800 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $116,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $102,400 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Duluth sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
19 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 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 6 | |
| 40-49 | 5 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 13,322 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Equipment and vehicle use | 7,499 | 41.0 mi | |
| 1998 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 950 | 39.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 732 | 42.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 517 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Equipment and vehicle use | 487 | 17.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 350 | 46.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 258 | 43.4 mi | |
| 1998 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 240 | 43.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 240 | 41.4 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 216 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Equipment and vehicle use | 171 | 16.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 170 | 40.8 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.
Six Minnesota cities with population within ±25% of Duluth. 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.