In 2025, fire departments serving Northbrook responded to 268 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $329K 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 58% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,051 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $3.5M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 50 | — | |
| 2022 | 246 | — | |
| 2023 | 248 | +0.8% | |
| 2024 | 239 | -3.6% | |
| 2025 | 268 | +12.1% |
* Well below Northbrook'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 32 building fires Northbrook departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 138 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 | 31 | 22.5% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 11 | 8.0% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 8 | 5.8% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 7 | 5.1% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 6 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 6 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 5 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 5 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 5 | 3.6% | |
| 10 | Exterior, exposed surface | 5 | 3.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 49 | 35.5% |
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 Northbrook mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 43 | 31.2% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 17 | 12.3% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 14 | 10.1% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 13 | 9.4% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 10 | 7.2% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 7 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 4 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 4 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 3 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 3 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 20 | 14.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Northbrook departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 94% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $329,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $60,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $30,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Northbrook sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,618 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 | 18.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 18.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 396 | 46.0 mi | |
| 1993 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 341 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 291 | 45.6 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 274 | 46.2 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 253 | 47.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 244 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 216 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 204 | 45.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 191 | 45.9 mi | |
| 1994 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 190 | 45.1 mi |
Top 6 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 Northbrook. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Northbrook.
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.