In 2025, fire departments serving Elk Grove Village responded to 120 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K 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 53% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
588 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $3.7M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 25 | — | |
| 2022 | 104 | — | |
| 2023 | 201 | +93.3% | |
| 2024 | 138 | -31.3% | |
| 2025 | 120 | -13.0% |
* Well below Elk Grove Village'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 14 building fires Elk Grove Village departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 185 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 36 | 19.5% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 33 | 17.8% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 23 | 12.4% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 13 | 7.0% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 12 | 6.5% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 8 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 6 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Other | 5 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Processing/manufacturing area, workroom | 5 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 4 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 40 | 21.6% |
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 Elk Grove Village mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 42 | 22.7% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 24 | 13.0% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 18 | 9.7% | |
| 4 | Cigarette | 15 | 8.1% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 11 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 11 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 10 | 5.4% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 8 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 8 | 4.3% | |
| 10 | Hot ember or ash | 7 | 3.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 31 | 16.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Elk Grove Village departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 96% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $40,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $39,750 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $21,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $12,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $6,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Elk Grove Village sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 6,252 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 750 | 28.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 600 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 28.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 396 | 45.9 mi | |
| 1993 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 341 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 291 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 274 | 46.4 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 253 | 46.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 244 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 232 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 216 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 204 | 45.1 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 Illinois cities with population within ±25% of Elk Grove Village. 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.