In 2025, fire departments serving Ketchikan responded to 94 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $600K 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 57% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
575 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $11.2M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 81 | — | |
| 2022 | 121 | +49.4% | |
| 2023 | 107 | -11.6% | |
| 2024 | 172 | +60.7% | |
| 2025 | 94 | -45.3% |
For the 19 building fires Ketchikan departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 198 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 27 | 13.6% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 22 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 16 | 8.1% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 16 | 8.1% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 11 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 10 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Other | 8 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 8 | 4.0% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 8 | 4.0% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 6 | 3.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 66 | 33.3% |
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 Ketchikan mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 70 | 35.4% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 17 | 8.6% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 16 | 8.1% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 16 | 8.1% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 12 | 6.1% | |
| 6 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 8 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 7 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 7 | 3.5% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 5 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 5 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 35 | 17.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Ketchikan departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $600,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $391,400 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $50,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $6,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Ketchikan sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
16 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 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 2 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 245 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Equipment and vehicle use | 127 | 27.9 mi | |
| 1998 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 118 | 43.3 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 | 99901 | 575 |
Six Alaska cities with population within ±25% of Ketchikan. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
5 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Ketchikan.
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.