In 2025, fire departments serving Queen Creek responded to 314 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $40K 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 63% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,059 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $2.7M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 60 | — | |
| 2022* | 77 | — | |
| 2023 | 282 | — | |
| 2024 | 326 | +15.6% | |
| 2025 | 314 | -3.7% |
* Well below Queen Creek'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 30 building fires Queen Creek departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 145 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 | 40 | 27.6% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 11 | 7.6% | |
| 3 | Other | 10 | 6.9% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 10 | 6.9% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 8 | 5.5% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 6 | 4.1% | |
| 7 | Storage area, other | 6 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 6 | 4.1% | |
| 9 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 6 | 4.1% | |
| 10 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 5 | 3.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 37 | 25.5% |
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 Queen Creek mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 56 | 38.6% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 23 | 15.9% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 16 | 11.0% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 12 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 10 | 6.9% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 5 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 4 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Explosive, fireworks, other | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 2 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 11 | 7.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Queen Creek departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 93% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Natural vegetation fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $2,500 | Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Queen Creek sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
230 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 | 9 | |
| 10-19 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 40 | |
| 30-39 | 112 | |
| 40-49 | 53 | |
| 50-59 | 15 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 695,876 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 193,455 | 26.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Recreation and ceremony | 123,875 | 26.1 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 72,000 | 30.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Recreation and ceremony | 58,960 | 35.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 24,729 | 21.4 mi | |
| 1995 | Natural | 24,505 | 32.5 mi | |
| 1995 | Natural | 22,092 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 21,670 | 46.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 17,618 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 16,100 | 38.5 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14,534 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14,476 | 45.7 mi |
Top 8 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 Queen Creek. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Queen Creek.
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.