In 2025, fire departments serving Harrisburg responded to 268 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K 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 66% of all calls.
Jan peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
807 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $181K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 85 | — | |
| 2022 | 114 | — | |
| 2023 | 151 | +32.5% | |
| 2024 | 189 | +25.2% | |
| 2025 | 268 | +41.8% |
* Well below Harrisburg'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 37 building fires Harrisburg departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 202 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 | 86 | 42.6% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 34 | 16.8% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 11 | 5.4% | |
| 4 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 7 | 3.5% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 6 | 3.0% | |
| 6 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 6 | 3.0% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 5 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 5 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Exterior, exposed surface | 5 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 5 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 32 | 15.8% |
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 Harrisburg mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 121 | 59.9% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 14 | 6.9% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 9 | 4.5% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 8 | 4.0% | |
| 5 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 8 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 7 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 7 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 5 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Radiated heat from another fire | 5 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 14 | 6.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Harrisburg departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Harrisburg sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,762 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,000 | 9.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 409 | 49.5 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 245 | 49.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 225 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 33.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 180 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 177 | 12.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 176 | 11.7 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 175 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 160 | 9.6 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 160 | 43.3 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 | 62946 | 807 |
Six Illinois cities with population within ±25% of Harrisburg. 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.