In 2025, fire departments serving Lombard responded to 435 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $300K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 73% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,094 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $5.7M cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 421 | — | |
| 2022 | 414 | -1.7% | |
| 2023 | 375 | -9.4% | |
| 2024 | 449 | +19.7% | |
| 2025 | 435 | -3.1% |
For the 74 building fires Lombard departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 260 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 | 62 | 23.8% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 41 | 15.8% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 30 | 11.5% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 17 | 6.5% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 13 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Wall surface: exterior | 9 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 8 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 7 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Other | 6 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 6 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 61 | 23.5% |
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 Lombard mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 167 | 64.2% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 14 | 5.4% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 10 | 3.8% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 6 | 2.3% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 6 | 2.3% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 6 | 2.3% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 6 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Chemical reaction | 6 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 5 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Heat source: other | 4 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 30 | 11.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Lombard departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 84% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $175,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $70,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $50,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Lombard sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
12 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 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 6,291 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 750 | 37.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 600 | 39.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 37.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 396 | 42.1 mi | |
| 1993 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 341 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 291 | 41.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 274 | 42.9 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 253 | 42.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 244 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 232 | 36.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 216 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 204 | 41.2 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 Illinois cities with population within ±25% of Lombard. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Lombard.
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.