In 2025, fire departments serving Oakville responded to 26 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $60K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 81% of all calls.
Nov peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
145 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $729K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 35 | — | |
| 2022* | 14 | — | |
| 2023 | 27 | — | |
| 2024 | 43 | +59.3% | |
| 2025 | 26 | -39.5% |
* Well below Oakville'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 Oakville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 61 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 | 13 | 21.3% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 12 | 19.7% | |
| 3 | Other | 9 | 14.8% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 9 | 14.8% | |
| 5 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 2 | 3.3% | |
| 6 | Function area, other | 2 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 2 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Vacant structural area | 2 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 7 | 11.5% |
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 Oakville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 23 | 37.7% | |
| 2 | Cigarette lighter | 9 | 14.8% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 6 | 9.8% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 5 | 8.2% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 5 | 8.2% | |
| 6 | Match | 3 | 4.9% | |
| 7 | Molten, hot material | 2 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Fireworks | 2 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 4 | 6.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Oakville departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $800 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Oakville 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 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,085 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Fireworks | 1,100 | 45.9 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 594 | 32.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 494 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 384 | 10.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 268 | 9.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 229 | 22.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 185 | 33.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 175 | 30.7 mi | |
| 1998 | Recreation and ceremony | 140 | 18.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 127 | 23.1 mi | |
| 2013 | Fireworks | 110 | 33.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 107 | 29.1 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 Washington cities with population within ±25% of Oakville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Oakville.
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.