In 2025, fire departments serving Kankakee responded to 587 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K 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 64% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,128 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $6.2M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 618 | — | |
| 2022 | 682 | +10.4% | |
| 2023 | 589 | -13.6% | |
| 2024 | 652 | +10.7% | |
| 2025 | 587 | -10.0% |
For the 145 building fires Kankakee departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 543 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 | 99 | 18.2% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 54 | 9.9% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 47 | 8.7% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 47 | 8.7% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 34 | 6.3% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 22 | 4.1% | |
| 7 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 22 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 18 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 17 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 14 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 169 | 31.1% |
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 Kankakee mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 253 | 46.6% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 50 | 9.2% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 39 | 7.2% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 25 | 4.6% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 22 | 4.1% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 18 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 14 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 12 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 12 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 11 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 87 | 16.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Kankakee departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 66% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $70,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $45,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Kankakee sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
22 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 | 4 | |
| 40-49 | 6 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,306 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Natural | 600 | 26.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 396 | 46.1 mi | |
| 1993 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 341 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 291 | 45.6 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 274 | 47.3 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 253 | 44.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 244 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 232 | 24.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 216 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 204 | 45.2 mi | |
| 1994 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 191 | 46.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 190 | 44.9 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 | 60901 | 3,128 |
Six Illinois cities with population within ±25% of Kankakee. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Kankakee.
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.