In 2025, fire departments serving Phoenix responded to 6,148 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $2K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 61% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
35,264 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $17.2M cumulative property loss. 15 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 5,092 | — | |
| 2022 | 7,908 | +55.3% | |
| 2023 | 8,707 | +10.1% | |
| 2024 | 7,409 | -14.9% | |
| 2025 | 6,148 | -17.0% |
For the 741 building fires Phoenix departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 22,511 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 | 12,003 | 53.3% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 3,564 | 15.8% | |
| 3 | Function area, other | 1,204 | 5.3% | |
| 4 | Other | 768 | 3.4% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 705 | 3.1% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 626 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 393 | 1.7% | |
| 8 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 339 | 1.5% | |
| 9 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 338 | 1.5% | |
| 10 | Cooking area, kitchen | 315 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 2,256 | 10.0% |
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 Phoenix mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 16,874 | 75.0% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1,781 | 7.9% | |
| 3 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1,543 | 6.9% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 643 | 2.9% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 322 | 1.4% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 226 | 1.0% | |
| 7 | Chemical reaction | 131 | 0.6% | |
| 8 | Lightning | 113 | 0.5% | |
| 9 | Explosive, fireworks, other | 112 | 0.5% | |
| 10 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 108 | 0.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 658 | 2.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Phoenix departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $1 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Phoenix sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
651 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 | 2 | |
| 10-19 | 6 | |
| 20-29 | 180 | |
| 30-39 | 205 | |
| 40-49 | 142 | |
| 50-59 | 91 | |
| 60-69 | 16 | |
| 70-79 | 6 | |
| 80+ | 3 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 971,085 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Natural | 248,310 | 32.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 193,455 | 30.6 mi | |
| 2004 | Natural | 119,500 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 72,000 | 36.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Recreation and ceremony | 58,960 | 44.3 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 33,550 | 39.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 24,729 | 47.1 mi | |
| 1995 | Natural | 24,505 | 20.1 mi | |
| 1995 | Natural | 22,092 | 39.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 17,618 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Other causes | 16,240 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 16,100 | 48.0 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Phoenix.
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.