In 2025, fire departments serving Oceanside responded to 196 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Cooking fire, confined to container lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 77% of all calls.
Nov peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
811 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $1.9M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 60 | — | |
| 2022 | 167 | — | |
| 2023 | 202 | +21.0% | |
| 2024 | 186 | -7.9% | |
| 2025 | 196 | +5.4% |
* Well below Oceanside'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 11 building fires Oceanside departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 14 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 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 4 | 28.6% | |
| 2 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 2 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Wall surface: exterior | 2 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Office | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 7 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 9 | Chute; laundry or mail, excluding trash chutes | 1 | 7.1% |
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 Oceanside mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 5 | 35.7% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 3 | 21.4% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 2 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 7 | Chemical reaction | 1 | 7.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Oceanside departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $2,500 | Electrical wiring/equipment problem, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Oceanside sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 8,385 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,000 | 38.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 992 | 45.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 552 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 481 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Firearms and explosives use | 475 | 38.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 38.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Recreation and ceremony | 410 | 47.5 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 363 | 33.1 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 41.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 295 | 47.1 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 250 | 38.4 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 New York cities with population within ±25% of Oceanside. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Oceanside.
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.