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In 2025, fire departments serving Monmouth responded to 51 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $65K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Authorized controlled burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 45% of all calls.
Aug peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
312 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $808K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 92 | — | |
| 2022 | 56 | -39.1% | |
| 2023 | 78 | +39.3% | |
| 2024* | 35 | — | |
| 2025 | 51 | — |
* Well below Monmouth'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 1 building fires Monmouth 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 | 19 | 21.6% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 14 | 15.9% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 8 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 8 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 7 | 8.0% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 5 | 5.7% | |
| 7 | Other | 4 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 3 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 3 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 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 Monmouth mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 44 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 9 | 10.2% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 6 | 6.8% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 4 | 4.5% | |
| 5 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 3 | 3.4% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 3 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Arcing | 2 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 11 | 12.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Monmouth departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $65,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,000 | Special outside fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $500 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Monmouth sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 11,209 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 | 2,584 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,552 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 1,070 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 532 | 33.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 497 | 47.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 376 | 14.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 330 | 38.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 303 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2009 | Recreation and ceremony | 283 | 47.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 281 | 32.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 250 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 215 | 28.0 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 Oregon cities with population within ±25% of Monmouth. 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.