In 2025, fire departments serving North Barrington responded to 32 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $3K 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 81% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
153 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $459K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 17 | — | |
| 2022 | 27 | — | |
| 2023 | 36 | +33.3% | |
| 2024 | 41 | +13.9% | |
| 2025 | 32 | -22.0% |
* Well below North Barrington'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 5 building fires North Barrington departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 13 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 23.1% | |
| 2 | Other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 3 | Egress/exit, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Service facilities, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 8 | Outside area, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 9 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 10 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1 | 7.7% |
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 North Barrington mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 23.1% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 3 | 23.1% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 7.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by North Barrington departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $3,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $3,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. North Barrington sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
5 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 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,539 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 750 | 21.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 20.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 200 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 180 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 80 | 29.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 80 | 11.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 76 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2003 | Recreation and ceremony | 75 | 22.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 60 | 37.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 53 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 50 | 20.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 23.4 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Illinois cities with population within ±25% of North Barrington. 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.