In 2025, fire departments serving Lynnwood responded to 499 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $600K 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 46% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,695 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $14.3M cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 495 | — | |
| 2022 | 647 | +30.7% | |
| 2023 | 595 | -8.0% | |
| 2024 | 459 | -22.9% | |
| 2025 | 499 | +8.7% |
For the 41 building fires Lynnwood departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 734 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 | 193 | 26.3% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 84 | 11.4% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 63 | 8.6% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 62 | 8.4% | |
| 5 | Other | 44 | 6.0% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 43 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 23 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 19 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 16 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 15 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 172 | 23.4% |
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 Lynnwood mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 464 | 63.2% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 55 | 7.5% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 42 | 5.7% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 36 | 4.9% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 31 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 17 | 2.3% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 12 | 1.6% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 10 | 1.4% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 9 | 1.2% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 9 | 1.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 49 | 6.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Lynnwood departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 72% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $600,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $125,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $50,000 | Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Lynnwood sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
5 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 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 8,661 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 3,312 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,243 | 38.6 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 817 | 41.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 494 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 443 | 39.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 360 | 35.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Natural | 294 | 40.2 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 290 | 42.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 289 | 31.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 200 | 40.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 170 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 89 | 29.1 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 Washington cities with population within ±25% of Lynnwood. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Lynnwood.
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.