In 2025, fire departments serving Santaquin responded to 54 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $85K 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 46% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
137 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $3.0M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 3 | — | |
| 2022* | 12 | — | |
| 2023 | 27 | — | |
| 2024 | 41 | +51.9% | |
| 2025 | 54 | +31.7% |
* Well below Santaquin'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 4 building fires Santaquin departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 30 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 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 6 | 20.0% | |
| 2 | Other | 5 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 4 | 13.3% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 2 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 6.7% | |
| 7 | Processing/manufacturing area, workroom | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Duct: hvac, cable, exhaust, heating, or AC | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Machinery room or area; elevator machinery room | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 5 | 16.7% |
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 Santaquin mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 10 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 5 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 2 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Molten, hot material | 2 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 3 | 10.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Santaquin departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $85,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $25,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $4,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Santaquin sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 797,867 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Natural | 102,191 | 13.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 89,148 | 29.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 78,065 | 47.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 58,707 | 33.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 48,986 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 47,387 | 27.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 37,923 | 31.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 33,838 | 12.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 31,661 | 20.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 28,540 | 47.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 28,442 | 39.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25,456 | 17.6 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 | 84655 | 137 |
Six Utah cities with population within ±25% of Santaquin. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Santaquin.
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.