In 2025, fire departments serving Hoquiam responded to 84 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $187K 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 62% of all calls.
Feb peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
696 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $3.7M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 152 | — | |
| 2022 | 156 | +2.6% | |
| 2023 | 167 | +7.1% | |
| 2024 | 137 | -18.0% | |
| 2025 | 84 | -38.7% |
For the 11 building fires Hoquiam departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 244 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 | Outside area, other | 48 | 19.7% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 33 | 13.5% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 25 | 10.2% | |
| 4 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 15 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 14 | 5.7% | |
| 6 | Other | 13 | 5.3% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 11 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 8 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 8 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 7 | 2.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 62 | 25.4% |
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 Hoquiam mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 128 | 52.5% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 21 | 8.6% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 13 | 5.3% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 13 | 5.3% | |
| 5 | Fireworks | 13 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 10 | 4.1% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 10 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 8 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 5 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 4 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 19 | 7.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Hoquiam departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 97% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $187,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $151,842 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $140,690 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $90,576 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $40,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $19,024 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hoquiam sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
6 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 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 7,253 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Natural | 2,815 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Fireworks | 1,100 | 45.7 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 594 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 384 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 268 | 40.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 229 | 28.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 185 | 35.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 160 | 50.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 127 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 119 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2013 | Fireworks | 110 | 14.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 107 | 26.1 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 | 98550 | 696 |
Six Washington cities with population within ±25% of Hoquiam. 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.