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In 2025, fire departments serving Rockaway Beach responded to 24 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 83% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
43 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 3 | — | |
| 2022* | 4 | — | |
| 2023 | 10 | — | |
| 2024* | 2 | — | |
| 2025 | 24 | — |
* Well below Rockaway Beach'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 2 building fires Rockaway Beach departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 2 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 | Other | 1 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 1 | 50.0% |
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 Rockaway Beach mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 50.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Rockaway Beach sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,472 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,552 | 41.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 301 | 8.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 281 | 41.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 254 | 12.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 215 | 35.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 211 | 32.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 143 | 14.4 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 140 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 126 | 37.0 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 119 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 117 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 110 | 49.4 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 97136 | 43 |
Six Oregon cities with population within ±25% of Rockaway Beach. 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.