In 2025, fire departments serving Kekaha responded to 31 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1 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 81% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
82 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $160K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 9 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023 | 19 | — | |
| 2024 | 23 | +21.1% | |
| 2025 | 31 | +34.8% |
* Well below Kekaha'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 Kekaha departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 13 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 | 7 | 53.8% | |
| 2 | Other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 3 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Switchgear area, transformer vault | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Outside area, other | 1 | 7.7% |
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 Kekaha mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 10 | 76.9% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 1 | 7.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Kekaha departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Kekaha sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
31 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 | 5 | |
| 30-39 | 8 | |
| 40-49 | 11 | |
| 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 | 2.4 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,150 | 1.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Recreation and ceremony | 750 | 3.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 652 | 19.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 640 | 26.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 24.1 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 27.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 24.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 220 | 20.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 18.9 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 18.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 23.8 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Hawaii cities with population within ±25% of Kekaha. 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.