In 2025, fire departments serving Houston responded to 56 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K 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 54% of all calls.
Jan peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
269 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $1.6M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 87 | — | |
| 2022 | 61 | -29.9% | |
| 2023 | 51 | -16.4% | |
| 2024* | 14 | — | |
| 2025 | 56 | — |
* Well below Houston'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 7 building fires Houston departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 60 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 | 17 | 28.3% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 8 | 13.3% | |
| 3 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 5 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 5 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 8.3% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 3 | 5.0% | |
| 8 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 2 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Wildland, woods | 2 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 9 | 15.0% |
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 Houston mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 31 | 51.7% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 10 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 6 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 2 | 3.3% | |
| 6 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 2 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 8 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Fireworks | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 2 | 3.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Houston departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $25,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $5,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $2,500 | Camper or recreational vehicle (RV) fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $250 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Houston sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
5 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 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 68,373 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Fireworks | 37,336 | 1.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 8,494 | 21.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,264 | 17.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Natural | 3,496 | 21.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3,288 | 30.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 1,701 | 28.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,692 | 35.0 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,314 | 14.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 777 | 41.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 461 | 10.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 383 | 23.0 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 367 | 35.5 mi |
Top 5 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Alaska cities with population within ±25% of Houston. 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.