In 2025, fire departments serving Navy responded to 32 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 87% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
103 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $430K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022* | 2 | — | |
| 2023 | 24 | — | |
| 2024 | 45 | +87.5% | |
| 2025 | 32 | -28.9% |
* Well below Navy'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 0 building fires Navy departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 16 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 8 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 18.8% | |
| 3 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 3 | 18.8% | |
| 4 | Exterior, exposed surface | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Railroad right of way: on or near | 1 | 6.2% |
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 Navy mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 7 | 43.8% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 3 | 18.8% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Cigarette | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Radiated heat from another fire | 1 | 6.2% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Navy sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 7,790 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Other causes | 1,989 | 43.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 640 | 23.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Recreation and ceremony | 500 | 37.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 461 | 17.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 431 | 25.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Recreation and ceremony | 405 | 29.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 | 29.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 29.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 344 | 43.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 318 | 20.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Natural | 300 | 49.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 21.0 mi |
Top 4 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Virginia cities with population within ±25% of Navy. 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.