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In 2025, fire departments serving Milwaukie responded to 275 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $189K 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 64% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,230 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $4.9M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 328 | — | |
| 2022 | 291 | -11.3% | |
| 2023 | 159 | -45.4% | |
| 2024 | 177 | +11.3% | |
| 2025 | 275 | +55.4% |
For the 46 building fires Milwaukie departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 417 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 | 135 | 32.4% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 41 | 9.8% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 35 | 8.4% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 22 | 5.3% | |
| 5 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 21 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 20 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 17 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 17 | 4.1% | |
| 9 | Other | 12 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 11 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 86 | 20.6% |
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 Milwaukie mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 232 | 55.6% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 47 | 11.3% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 20 | 4.8% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 18 | 4.3% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 15 | 3.6% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 12 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 11 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 11 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 7 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 6 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 38 | 9.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Milwaukie departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 76% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $189,057 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $144,959 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $124,520 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $120,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $115,969 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $101,241 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $70,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Milwaukie sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
21 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 | 8 | |
| 40-49 | 5 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 463,688 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 193,573 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 138,054 | 38.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Fireworks | 48,488 | 37.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 24,995 | 45.5 mi | |
| 1992 | Smoking | 24,400 | 36.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 7,500 | 7.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 6,304 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,508 | 27.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 2,810 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,584 | 17.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 2,033 | 47.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,508 | 13.8 mi |
Top 8 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Oregon cities with population within ±25% of Milwaukie. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.