In 2025, fire departments serving Madison responded to 1,031 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.0M 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 50% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
4,986 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $22.1M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 885 | — | |
| 2022 | 938 | +6.0% | |
| 2023 | 983 | +4.8% | |
| 2024 | 1,149 | +16.9% | |
| 2025 | 1,031 | -10.3% |
For the 57 building fires Madison departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 898 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 | 212 | 23.6% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 134 | 14.9% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 106 | 11.8% | |
| 4 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 40 | 4.5% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 29 | 3.2% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 29 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 26 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 25 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 25 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 25 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 247 | 27.5% |
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 Madison mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 429 | 47.8% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 162 | 18.0% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 63 | 7.0% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 53 | 5.9% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 35 | 3.9% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 27 | 3.0% | |
| 7 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 27 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Candle | 14 | 1.6% | |
| 9 | Chemical reaction | 13 | 1.4% | |
| 10 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 10 | 1.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 65 | 7.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Madison departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 53% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $300,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $132,350 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Madison sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
61 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 | 6 | |
| 30-39 | 30 | |
| 40-49 | 11 | |
| 50-59 | 6 | |
| 60-69 | 4 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 3 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 11,224 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,400 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,100 | 23.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,100 | 30.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,015 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 617 | 31.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 612 | 46.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 580 | 23.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 5.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 484 | 33.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 364 | 46.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 360 | 47.3 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.
4 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Madison.
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.