In 2025, fire departments serving Federal Way responded to 810 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $550K 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 60% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
4,219 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $18.4M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 778 | — | |
| 2022 | 806 | +3.6% | |
| 2023 | 1,024 | +27.0% | |
| 2024 | 801 | -21.8% | |
| 2025 | 810 | +1.1% |
For the 60 building fires Federal Way departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,475 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 | 245 | 16.6% | |
| 2 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 211 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 166 | 11.3% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 148 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 117 | 7.9% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 112 | 7.6% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 68 | 4.6% | |
| 8 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 39 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 29 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 28 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 312 | 21.2% |
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 Federal Way mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 661 | 44.8% | |
| 2 | Cigarette | 150 | 10.2% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 140 | 9.5% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 67 | 4.5% | |
| 5 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 63 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 62 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 53 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 45 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 40 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 40 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 154 | 10.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Federal Way departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 63% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $550,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $85,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Federal Way sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
38 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 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 8 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 7 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 12,521 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 3,312 | 41.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,243 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,061 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 817 | 46.9 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 594 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 494 | 7.1 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 443 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 420 | 35.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 384 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 360 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 359 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 310 | 38.2 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 Washington cities with population within ±25% of Federal Way. 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.