In 2025, fire departments serving Portland responded to 788 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 49% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,515 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $5.9M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 400 | — | |
| 2022 | 634 | — | |
| 2023 | 730 | +15.1% | |
| 2024 | 963 | +31.9% | |
| 2025 | 788 | -18.2% |
* Well below Portland'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 33 building fires Portland departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 262 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 53 | 20.2% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 40 | 15.3% | |
| 3 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 15 | 5.7% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 15 | 5.7% | |
| 5 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 13 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 13 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Wall surface: exterior | 11 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 8 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 8 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 8 | 3.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 78 | 29.8% |
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 Portland mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 71 | 27.1% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 66 | 25.2% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 26 | 9.9% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 19 | 7.3% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 15 | 5.7% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 12 | 4.6% | |
| 7 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 9 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 7 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 7 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 5 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 25 | 9.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Portland departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 98% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $50,000 | Fire in portable building, fixed location | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $35,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Portland sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,163 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 314 | 28.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 236 | 4.9 mi | |
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 60 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 41.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 42 | 11.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 27.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 39 | 35.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 33 | 18.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 33 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2013 | Arson/incendiarism | 32 | 31.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 31 | 17.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 | 45.4 mi |
Top 9 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
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.