In 2025, fire departments serving Grand Coulee responded to 13 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 85% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
78 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $130K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 27 | — | |
| 2022 | 17 | -37.0% | |
| 2023 | 15 | -11.8% | |
| 2024* | 6 | — | |
| 2025 | 13 | — |
* Well below Grand Coulee'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 2 building fires Grand Coulee departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 9 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 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 3 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Roof surface: exterior | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 11.1% |
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 Grand Coulee mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 4 | 44.4% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 11.1% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Grand Coulee sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,454,118 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 223,731 | 23.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 218,138 | 27.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 189,923 | 36.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 165,883 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 127,430 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 76,817 | 17.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 64,007 | 36.6 mi | |
| 2019 | Natural | 44,446 | 17.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 36,775 | 35.1 mi | |
| 2001 | Smoking | 32,960 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Firearms and explosives use | 26,805 | 11.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 23,324 | 34.7 mi |
Top 4 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 Grand Coulee. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Grand Coulee.
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.