In 2025, fire departments serving Hoffman Estates responded to 288 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $2.0M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 63% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,143 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $8.3M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 96 | — | |
| 2022 | 233 | — | |
| 2023 | 263 | +12.9% | |
| 2024 | 263 | +0.0% | |
| 2025 | 288 | +9.5% |
* Well below Hoffman Estates'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 49 building fires Hoffman Estates departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 291 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 69 | 23.7% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 38 | 13.1% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 30 | 10.3% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 30 | 10.3% | |
| 5 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 17 | 5.8% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 11 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 11 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 7 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 7 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 6 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 65 | 22.3% |
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 Hoffman Estates mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 75 | 25.8% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 44 | 15.1% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 25 | 8.6% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 24 | 8.2% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 19 | 6.5% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 18 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Chemical reaction | 13 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 12 | 4.1% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 11 | 3.8% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 10 | 3.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 40 | 13.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Hoffman Estates departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 95% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,000,000 | Outside equipment fire | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $750,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $264,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hoffman Estates sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
10 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 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,494 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 750 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 28.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 232 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 160 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 80 | 39.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 80 | 20.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Recreation and ceremony | 75 | 17.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 67 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 60 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 50 | 12.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 47.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 31.7 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Illinois cities with population within ±25% of Hoffman Estates. 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.