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In 2025, fire departments serving Newberg responded to 177 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10.0M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 61% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,068 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $16.4M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 214 | — | |
| 2022 | 249 | +16.4% | |
| 2023 | 235 | -5.6% | |
| 2024 | 193 | -17.9% | |
| 2025 | 177 | -8.3% |
For the 20 building fires Newberg departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 380 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 | 77 | 20.3% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 74 | 19.5% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 35 | 9.2% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 22 | 5.8% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 22 | 5.8% | |
| 6 | Service facilities, other | 16 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 16 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Undetermined | 14 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 13 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 9 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 82 | 21.6% |
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 Newberg mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 149 | 39.2% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 45 | 11.8% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 27 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Cigarette | 22 | 5.8% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 21 | 5.5% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 20 | 5.3% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 19 | 5.0% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 16 | 4.2% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 8 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 7 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 46 | 12.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Newberg departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000,000 | Building fires | Catastrophic | Investigated |
| 2 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $250,000 | Special outside fire, other | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $24,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $6,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Newberg sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
7 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 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 160,936 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 | 138,054 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 7,500 | 23.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,508 | 38.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,584 | 21.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,508 | 28.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 790 | 44.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 532 | 24.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 497 | 28.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 376 | 45.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Smoking | 370 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 330 | 38.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 303 | 35.6 mi |
Top 3 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 Newberg. 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.