In 2025, fire departments serving Kennewick responded to 786 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $549K 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 55% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
4,009 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $53.7M cumulative property loss. 8 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 759 | — | |
| 2022 | 856 | +12.8% | |
| 2023 | 832 | -2.8% | |
| 2024 | 776 | -6.7% | |
| 2025 | 786 | +1.3% |
For the 96 building fires Kennewick departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 836 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 | 19.1% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 137 | 16.4% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 53 | 6.3% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 43 | 5.1% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 32 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Wall surface: exterior | 28 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 27 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 23 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Outside area, other | 22 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 21 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 290 | 34.7% |
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 Kennewick mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 339 | 40.6% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 97 | 11.6% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 85 | 10.2% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 42 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 42 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 35 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 23 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 22 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Radiated heat from another fire | 17 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 13 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 121 | 14.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Kennewick departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 71% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $548,530 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $200,000 | Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $196,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Kennewick sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
81 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 | 4 | |
| 10-19 | 4 | |
| 20-29 | 22 | |
| 30-39 | 16 | |
| 40-49 | 21 | |
| 50-59 | 8 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 3 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 784,822 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Equipment and vehicle use | 163,884 | 38.5 mi | |
| 2008 | Natural | 78,000 | 46.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 72,641 | 40.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 57,520 | 45.1 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 48,902 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Recreation and ceremony | 41,748 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30,648 | 41.4 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25,000 | 39.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 22,316 | 41.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 22,000 | 41.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 21,620 | 31.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 20,947 | 47.6 mi |
Top 6 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Washington cities with population within ±25% of Kennewick. 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.