In 2025, fire departments serving Golden Valley responded to 61 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $75K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Golden Valley's departments reported 61 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 152 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
759 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $11.6M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 179 | — | |
| 2022 | 187 | +4.5% | |
| 2023 | 151 | -19.3% | |
| 2024 | 181 | +19.9% | |
| 2025* | 61 | — |
* Well below Golden Valley'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 9 building fires Golden Valley departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 116 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 | 29 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 11 | 9.5% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 11 | 9.5% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 9 | 7.8% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 9 | 7.8% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 8 | 6.9% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 7 | 6.0% | |
| 8 | Wall surface: exterior | 5 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 5 | 4.3% | |
| 10 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 3 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 19 | 16.4% |
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 Golden Valley mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 52 | 44.8% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 14 | 12.1% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 13 | 11.2% | |
| 4 | Cigarette | 10 | 8.6% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 7 | 6.0% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 2.6% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 8 | 6.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Golden Valley departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $4,992 | Grass fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $800 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $500 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Golden Valley sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 18,219 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 8,513 | 25.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,550 | 23.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 1,299 | 35.9 mi | |
| 2004 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,000 | 13.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 420 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 336 | 21.3 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 320 | 40.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 306 | 19.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 280 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 260 | 36.4 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 13.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | 248 | 27.7 mi |
Top 5 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 Golden Valley. 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.