In 2025, fire departments serving Kapaa responded to 64 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 64% of all calls.
Jan peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
253 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $2.1M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 25 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023 | 92 | — | |
| 2024 | 72 | -21.7% | |
| 2025 | 64 | -11.1% |
* Well below Kapaa'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 0 building fires Kapaa departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 45 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 | 18 | 40.0% | |
| 2 | Other | 12 | 26.7% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 4 | 8.9% | |
| 4 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 2 | 4.4% | |
| 5 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 2 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 7 | Dining room, cafeteria bar area, beverage service | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 8 | Processing/manufacturing area, workroom | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 2 | 4.4% |
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 Kapaa mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 27 | 60.0% | |
| 2 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 8.9% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 4 | 8.9% | |
| 4 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 3 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 2 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Molten, hot material | 2 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 8 | Arcing | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 2.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Kapaa departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $3,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $1 | Natural vegetation fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $1 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Kapaa sits below 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 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 7 | |
| 40-49 | 8 | |
| 50-59 | 7 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 10,282 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,000 | 25.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,150 | 24.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Recreation and ceremony | 750 | 21.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 652 | 6.1 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 640 | 2.6 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 3.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 3.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 3.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 220 | 4.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 15.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 15.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 6.6 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 | 96746 | 253 |
Six Hawaii cities with population within ±25% of Kapaa. 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.