In 2025, fire departments serving Riverdale responded to 273 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.0M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 76% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,196 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $2.5M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 95 | — | |
| 2022 | 303 | — | |
| 2023 | 263 | -13.2% | |
| 2024 | 262 | -0.4% | |
| 2025 | 273 | +4.2% |
* Well below Riverdale'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 95 building fires Riverdale departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 255 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 | 133 | 52.2% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 26 | 10.2% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 20 | 7.8% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 11 | 4.3% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 10 | 3.9% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 9 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 6 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Other | 5 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 5 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Storage area, other | 4 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 26 | 10.2% |
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 Riverdale mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 183 | 71.8% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 8 | 3.1% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 7 | 2.7% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 7 | 2.7% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 6 | 2.4% | |
| 6 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 5 | 2.0% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 1.6% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 4 | 1.6% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 4 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 4 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 23 | 9.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Riverdale departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 98% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $800,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $85,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $30,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Riverdale sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,306 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Natural | 600 | 38.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 396 | 18.5 mi | |
| 1993 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 341 | 18.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 291 | 17.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 274 | 19.5 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 253 | 18.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 244 | 18.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 232 | 33.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 216 | 18.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 204 | 17.4 mi | |
| 1994 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 191 | 18.7 mi | |
| 1994 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 190 | 16.8 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Illinois cities with population within ±25% of Riverdale. 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.