In 2025, fire departments serving Joliet responded to 1,138 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10.0M 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 56% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
5,138 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $22.5M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 904 | — | |
| 2022 | 868 | -4.0% | |
| 2023 | 954 | +9.9% | |
| 2024 | 1,274 | +33.5% | |
| 2025 | 1,138 | -10.7% |
For the 155 building fires Joliet departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,131 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 | 160 | 14.1% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 132 | 11.7% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 121 | 10.7% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 97 | 8.6% | |
| 5 | Other | 91 | 8.0% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 51 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 38 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 34 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 32 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 32 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 343 | 30.3% |
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 Joliet mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 394 | 34.8% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 180 | 15.9% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 147 | 13.0% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 54 | 4.8% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 51 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 45 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 44 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Arcing | 39 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 27 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 26 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 124 | 11.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Joliet departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 86% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000,000 | Building fires | Catastrophic | Investigated |
| 2 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Joliet sits above 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 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,412 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Natural | 600 | 13.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 396 | 45.2 mi | |
| 1993 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 341 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 291 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 274 | 46.5 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 253 | 44.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 244 | 45.1 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 232 | 10.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 216 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 210 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 204 | 44.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 191 | 45.6 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 Joliet. 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.