In 2025, fire departments serving Medical Lake responded to 58 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $60K 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 59% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
377 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $1.2M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 90 | — | |
| 2022 | 73 | -18.9% | |
| 2023 | 112 | +53.4% | |
| 2024* | 44 | — | |
| 2025 | 58 | — |
* Well below Medical Lake's usual volume. That almost always means one or more departments didn't submit a full year to NFIRS, not that fires dropped, so no year-over-year change is shown for it.
For the 10 building fires Medical Lake departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 88 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 | 18 | 20.5% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 16 | 18.2% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 13 | 14.8% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 6 | 6.8% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 5 | 5.7% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 4 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 3 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 3 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Wall assembly | 3 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Other | 2 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 15 | 17.0% |
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 Medical Lake mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 37 | 42.0% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 11 | 12.5% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 8 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 5 | 5.7% | |
| 5 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 5 | 5.7% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 4 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 4 | 4.5% | |
| 9 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 2 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 1 | 1.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 7 | 8.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Medical Lake departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $1,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Medical Lake sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 369,669 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 127,430 | 28.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 64,007 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 23,324 | 42.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 19,090 | 35.7 mi | |
| 1998 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 18,120 | 35.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 18,117 | 26.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15,269 | 23.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,797 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Firearms and explosives use | 10,552 | 19.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 10,500 | 39.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 7,209 | 40.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,017 | 17.4 mi |
Top 5 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 Medical Lake. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Medical Lake.
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.