In 2025, fire departments serving Prescott responded to 288 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $360K 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 51% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,429 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $6.9M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 309 | — | |
| 2022 | 264 | -14.6% | |
| 2023 | 239 | -9.5% | |
| 2024 | 329 | +37.7% | |
| 2025 | 288 | -12.5% |
For the 17 building fires Prescott departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 250 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 46 | 18.4% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 40 | 16.0% | |
| 3 | Other | 24 | 9.6% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 14 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 13 | 5.2% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 10 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 8 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Outside area, other | 7 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 6 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 6 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 76 | 30.4% |
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 Prescott mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 114 | 45.6% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 26 | 10.4% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 20 | 8.0% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 17 | 6.8% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 14 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 12 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 11 | 4.4% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 6 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Lightning | 5 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 21 | 8.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Prescott departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 83% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $360,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $150,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $90,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Prescott sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
88 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 22 | |
| 30-39 | 30 | |
| 40-49 | 20 | |
| 50-59 | 12 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 319,762 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Natural | 33,550 | 39.4 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 32,126 | 32.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 28,516 | 16.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 22,077 | 46.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Natural | 21,510 | 26.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 18,072 | 29.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Other causes | 16,240 | 25.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 12,500 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 12,252 | 37.6 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 10,482 | 30.7 mi | |
| 2008 | Recreation and ceremony | 9,629 | 29.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9,537 | 21.5 mi |
Top 6 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Arizona cities with population within ±25% of Prescott. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
4 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Prescott.
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.