In 2025, fire departments serving Hazel Dell responded to 12 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 75% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
50 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $344K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 7 | — | |
| 2022 | 17 | +142.9% | |
| 2023 | 11 | -35.3% | |
| 2024* | 3 | — | |
| 2025 | 12 | — |
* Well below Hazel Dell'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 3 building fires Hazel Dell departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 14 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 | 4 | 28.6% | |
| 2 | Other | 3 | 21.4% | |
| 3 | Entrance way, lobby | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 7 | Outside area, other | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 9 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 7.1% |
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 Hazel Dell mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 5 | 35.7% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 28.6% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Incendiary device | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 7 | Chemical reaction | 1 | 7.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Hazel Dell departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hazel Dell sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 121,149 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Fireworks | 48,488 | 36.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 24,995 | 36.7 mi | |
| 1992 | Smoking | 24,400 | 34.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 7,500 | 9.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,508 | 40.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,584 | 33.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,508 | 26.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,000 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 532 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 497 | 35.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 483 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 31.5 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 | 98665 | 50 |
Six Washington cities with population within ±25% of Hazel Dell. 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.