In 2025, fire departments serving Prosser responded to 77 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $45K 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 72% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
387 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $126K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 144 | — | |
| 2022 | 79 | -45.1% | |
| 2023* | 37 | — | |
| 2024 | 50 | — | |
| 2025 | 77 | +54.0% |
* Well below Prosser'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 7 building fires Prosser departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 64 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 | 12 | 18.8% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 9 | 14.1% | |
| 3 | Other | 8 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 5 | 7.8% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 4 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 4 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Storage area, other | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Machinery room or area; elevator machinery room | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 14 | 21.9% |
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 Prosser mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 36 | 56.2% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 6 | 9.4% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 4 | 6.2% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 4.7% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 3 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Chemical reaction | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 4 | 6.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Prosser departments in 2025. These 6 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $45,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $3,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $2,500 | Camper or recreational vehicle (RV) fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $2,300 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $1,200 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $500 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Prosser sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,042,976 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 171,915 | 29.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Equipment and vehicle use | 163,884 | 25.2 mi | |
| 2008 | Natural | 78,000 | 37.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 72,641 | 23.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 57,520 | 28.1 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 48,902 | 21.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 46,802 | 30.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Recreation and ceremony | 41,748 | 25.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 33,103 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30,648 | 23.8 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 26,093 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25,000 | 46.4 mi |
Top 5 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Washington cities with population within ±25% of Prosser. 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.