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In 2025, fire departments serving Lakewood responded to 1,071 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $361K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 58% of all calls.
Dec peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
5,413 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $21.2M cumulative property loss. 5 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 774 | — | |
| 2022 | 1,129 | +45.9% | |
| 2023 | 1,076 | -4.7% | |
| 2024 | 1,363 | +26.7% | |
| 2025 | 1,071 | -21.4% |
For the 69 building fires Lakewood departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,810 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 | Outside area, other | 519 | 28.7% | |
| 2 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 221 | 12.2% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 149 | 8.2% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 135 | 7.5% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 98 | 5.4% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 95 | 5.2% | |
| 7 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 68 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 57 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Other | 47 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 45 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 376 | 20.8% |
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 Lakewood mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 847 | 46.8% | |
| 2 | Cigarette lighter | 128 | 7.1% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 127 | 7.0% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 97 | 5.4% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 81 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 68 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 51 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 48 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 47 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 44 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 272 | 15.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Lakewood departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 45% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $360,775 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $360,775 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $316,745 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $246,465 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $213,121 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $175,322 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $171,285 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $158,372 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Lakewood sits below 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 6 | |
| 40-49 | 8 | |
| 50-59 | 9 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 220,695 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 137,760 | 46.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Recreation and ceremony | 11,875 | 27.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 10,800 | 24.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,106 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 6,382 | 27.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,200 | 2.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Equipment and vehicle use | 4,348 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 4,142 | 18.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 4,085 | 31.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3,869 | 33.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,008 | 27.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Smoking | 2,312 | 28.8 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Colorado cities with population within ±25% of Lakewood. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Lakewood.
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.