In 2025, fire departments serving Hinsdale responded to 20 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $6K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Hazardous condition, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 85% of all calls.
Nov peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
81 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $106K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 15 | — | |
| 2022 | 29 | +93.3% | |
| 2023 | 14 | -51.7% | |
| 2024* | 3 | — | |
| 2025 | 20 | — |
* Well below Hinsdale'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 1 building fires Hinsdale departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 3 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 | Structural area, other | 1 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 33.3% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 1 | 33.3% |
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 Hinsdale mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 33.3% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 1 | 33.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Hinsdale departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $6,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hinsdale sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,172 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 150 | 43.6 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 92 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | 64 | 41.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 56 | 44.5 mi | |
| 1992 | Equipment and vehicle use | 54 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 52 | 25.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 22.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 48 | 36.3 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 44 | 16.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Smoking | 43 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 43 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 41 | 31.1 mi |
Top 3 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six New York cities with population within ±25% of Hinsdale. 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.