In 2025, fire departments serving Nogales responded to 161 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $60K building blaze. 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 60% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
444 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $101K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 192 | — | |
| 2022* | 36 | — | |
| 2023* | 18 | — | |
| 2024* | 37 | — | |
| 2025 | 161 | — |
* Well below Nogales'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 4 building fires Nogales departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 102 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 | Undetermined | 53 | 52.0% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 11 | 10.8% | |
| 3 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 7 | 6.9% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 5 | 4.9% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 4 | 3.9% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 4 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 3 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Other | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Duct: hvac, cable, exhaust, heating, or AC | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 9 | 8.8% |
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 Nogales mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 71 | 69.6% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 6 | 5.9% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 4 | 3.9% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 4 | 3.9% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 2.9% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Lightning | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 1.0% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 1.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 4 | 3.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Nogales departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $60,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Nogales sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
57 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 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 11 | |
| 30-39 | 22 | |
| 40-49 | 12 | |
| 50-59 | 10 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 391,974 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 68,079 | 18.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Fireworks | 46,991 | 30.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 38,179 | 21.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30,526 | 41.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 23,668 | 49.9 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 23,183 | 23.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16,369 | 9.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 15,405 | 46.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | 12,015 | 28.6 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 10,775 | 11.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,610 | 22.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9,711 | 7.6 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 Arizona cities with population within ±25% of Nogales. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Nogales.
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.