In 2025, fire departments serving Goldendale responded to 110 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $204K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Authorized controlled burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 55% of all calls.
May peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
435 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $2.9M cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 40 | — | |
| 2022* | 36 | — | |
| 2023 | 137 | — | |
| 2024 | 112 | -18.2% | |
| 2025 | 110 | -1.8% |
* Well below Goldendale'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 6 building fires Goldendale departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 193 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 46 | 23.8% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 22 | 11.4% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 22 | 11.4% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 16 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 14 | 7.3% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 10 | 5.2% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 8 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Cooking area, kitchen | 8 | 4.1% | |
| 9 | Other | 7 | 3.6% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 35 | 18.1% |
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 Goldendale mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 75 | 38.9% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 29 | 15.0% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 10 | 5.2% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 9 | 4.7% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 9 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 8 | 4.1% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 8 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Fireworks | 8 | 4.1% | |
| 9 | Lightning | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 27 | 14.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Goldendale departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 99% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $203,500 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $136,000 | Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $35,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Goldendale 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 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 755,135 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Natural | 100,226 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 78,425 | 21.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 54,221 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 53,523 | 34.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 46,802 | 27.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 33,451 | 29.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 33,103 | 25.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 31,848 | 30.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 28,500 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 26,093 | 14.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Equipment and vehicle use | 25,937 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 23,600 | 45.5 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 98620 | 435 |
Six Washington cities with population within ±25% of Goldendale. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Goldendale.
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.