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In 2025, fire departments serving Pilot Rock responded to 45 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.5M 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 82% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
192 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $2.8M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 20 | — | |
| 2022 | 31 | — | |
| 2023 | 43 | +38.7% | |
| 2024 | 53 | +23.3% | |
| 2025 | 45 | -15.1% |
* Well below Pilot Rock'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 Pilot Rock departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 85 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 | 36 | 42.4% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 19 | 22.4% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 8 | 9.4% | |
| 4 | Other | 6 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 6 | Exterior, exposed surface | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 7 | Exterior stairway, ramp, or fire escape | 1 | 1.2% | |
| 8 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 1.2% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 1.2% | |
| 10 | Machinery room or area; elevator machinery room | 1 | 1.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 8 | 9.4% |
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 Pilot Rock mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 23 | 27.1% | |
| 2 | Chemical reaction | 20 | 23.5% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 7 | 8.2% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 4 | 4.7% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 3.5% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 3 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 3 | 3.5% | |
| 9 | Chemical, natural heat source, other | 3 | 3.5% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 14 | 16.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Pilot Rock departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,500,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $1,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Pilot Rock sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 367,481 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Natural | 78,000 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 53,448 | 44.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 50,633 | 31.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 32,352 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,756 | 15.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,377 | 34.0 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 11,081 | 35.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 10,137 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9,929 | 36.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 9,230 | 30.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 8,988 | 34.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 8,332 | 44.0 mi |
Top 4 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Oregon cities with population within ±25% of Pilot Rock. 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.