In 2025, fire departments serving Pahala responded to 11 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $350K 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 91% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
79 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $371K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 18 | — | |
| 2022 | 26 | +44.4% | |
| 2023 | 18 | -30.8% | |
| 2024* | 6 | — | |
| 2025 | 11 | — |
* Well below Pahala'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 1 building fires Pahala departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 27 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 | 9 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Vehicle area, other | 5 | 18.5% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 18.5% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 2 | 7.4% | |
| 6 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 3.7% |
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 Pahala mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 21 | 77.8% | |
| 2 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 7.4% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 4 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 6 | Fireworks | 1 | 3.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Pahala departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Pahala sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 81,651 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 18,000 | 49.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,000 | 47.2 mi | |
| 1998 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,500 | 49.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 4,930 | 23.5 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,700 | 25.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 3,572 | 20.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 3,407 | 25.5 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,800 | 45.8 mi | |
| 1998 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,400 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,300 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 2,076 | 26.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 2,019 | 25.9 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 96777 | 79 |
Six Hawaii cities with population within ±25% of Pahala. 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.