In 2025, fire departments serving Honolulu responded to 1,325 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.2M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 63% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
7,157 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $36.2M cumulative property loss. 7 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,574 | — | |
| 2022 | 1,371 | -12.9% | |
| 2023 | 1,450 | +5.8% | |
| 2024 | 1,437 | -0.9% | |
| 2025 | 1,325 | -7.8% |
For the 84 building fires Honolulu departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 994 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 | 204 | 20.5% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 117 | 11.8% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 91 | 9.2% | |
| 4 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 54 | 5.4% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 51 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 38 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Exterior, exposed surface | 34 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Wall surface: exterior | 31 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 31 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 22 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 321 | 32.3% |
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 Honolulu mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 425 | 42.8% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 122 | 12.3% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 87 | 8.8% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 63 | 6.3% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 56 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 40 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 39 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Radiated heat from another fire | 20 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 17 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 15 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 110 | 11.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Honolulu departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 70% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,179,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $786,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $700,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $581,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $568,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $525,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $483,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $434,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Honolulu sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
41 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 | 9 | |
| 30-39 | 7 | |
| 40-49 | 5 | |
| 50-59 | 9 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 7 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 34,454 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,000 | 21.9 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,820 | 24.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,800 | 17.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,100 | 22.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,700 | 22.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,700 | 22.4 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,507 | 19.3 mi | |
| 1998 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 29.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,235 | 22.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,000 | 29.6 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,000 | 24.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,000 | 21.4 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.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Honolulu.
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.