In 2025, fire departments serving Queen Valley responded to 18 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $8K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Forest, woods or wildland fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 83% of all calls.
Jan peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
65 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $295K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 4 | — | |
| 2022 | 13 | — | |
| 2023 | 18 | +38.5% | |
| 2024 | 12 | -33.3% | |
| 2025 | 18 | +50.0% |
* Well below Queen Valley'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 0 building fires Queen Valley departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 13 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 | 6 | 46.2% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 23.1% | |
| 3 | Storage area, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Roof surface: exterior | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 7.7% |
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 Valley mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 9 | 69.2% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Lightning | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 7.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Queen Valley departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $8,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Queen Valley sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 800,390 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 | 27.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Recreation and ceremony | 123,875 | 10.2 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 72,000 | 28.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 61,821 | 40.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Recreation and ceremony | 58,960 | 29.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 30,641 | 46.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 24,729 | 8.2 mi | |
| 1995 | Natural | 24,505 | 39.3 mi | |
| 1995 | Natural | 22,092 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 21,670 | 30.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 19,506 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 17,618 | 45.8 mi |
Top 2 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 Valley. 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.