In 2025, fire departments serving Rockford responded to 1,626 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $260K 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 52% of all calls.
May peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
7,948 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $23.8M cumulative property loss. 9 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,484 | — | |
| 2022 | 1,208 | -18.6% | |
| 2023 | 1,828 | +51.3% | |
| 2024 | 1,802 | -1.4% | |
| 2025 | 1,626 | -9.8% |
For the 205 building fires Rockford departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 2,001 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 | 391 | 19.5% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 267 | 13.3% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 211 | 10.5% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 121 | 6.0% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 109 | 5.4% | |
| 6 | Other | 89 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 60 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 59 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 52 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 51 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 591 | 29.5% |
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 Rockford mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 1,045 | 52.2% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 157 | 7.8% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 110 | 5.5% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 89 | 4.4% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 81 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 80 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 66 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 45 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 43 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 34 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 251 | 12.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Rockford departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 29% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $260,000 | Cultivated grain or crop fire | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $250,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $140,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Rockford sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
109 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 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 14 | |
| 30-39 | 16 | |
| 40-49 | 25 | |
| 50-59 | 13 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,149 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,100 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 617 | 41.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 580 | 35.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 21.3 mi | |
| 2004 | Smoking | 169 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 100 | 19.0 mi | |
| 2004 | Recreation and ceremony | 100 | 37.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 80 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Recreation and ceremony | 75 | 33.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 70 | 19.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 65 | 45.2 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 60 | 39.8 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 Rockford. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Rockford.
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.