In 2025, fire departments serving Sahuarita responded to 92 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Carbon monoxide incident lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 73% of all calls.
Nov peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
367 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $1.1M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 56 | — | |
| 2022 | 56 | +0.0% | |
| 2023 | 95 | +69.6% | |
| 2024 | 68 | -28.4% | |
| 2025 | 92 | +35.3% |
For the 6 building fires Sahuarita departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 91 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 20 | 22.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 15 | 16.5% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 9 | 9.9% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 8 | 8.8% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 7 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 4 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 3 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 3 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Other | 2 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 2 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 18 | 19.8% |
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 Sahuarita mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 33 | 36.3% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 13 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 7 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 6 | 6.6% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 6 | 6.6% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 4 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 3 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 3 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Explosive, fireworks, other | 2 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 11 | 12.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Sahuarita departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 92% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $60,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $40,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Sahuarita sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
175 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 39 | |
| 30-39 | 75 | |
| 40-49 | 36 | |
| 50-59 | 19 | |
| 60-69 | 6 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 651,162 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Natural | 119,978 | 30.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 82,440 | 36.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 68,079 | 29.3 mi | |
| 2017 | Fireworks | 46,991 | 11.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 38,179 | 37.6 mi | |
| 1993 | Natural | 35,696 | 49.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30,600 | 36.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 27,259 | 36.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 23,668 | 35.2 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 23,183 | 41.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16,369 | 41.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 15,405 | 36.7 mi |
Top 4 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 Sahuarita. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Sahuarita.
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.