In 2025, fire departments serving Seattle responded to 6,485 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $20.0M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 55% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
34,109 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $91.1M cumulative property loss. 19 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 6,471 | — | |
| 2022 | 7,354 | +13.6% | |
| 2023 | 7,437 | +1.1% | |
| 2024 | 6,362 | -14.5% | |
| 2025 | 6,485 | +1.9% |
For the 217 building fires Seattle departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 7,279 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 | Outside area, other | 1,502 | 20.6% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 924 | 12.7% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 543 | 7.5% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 472 | 6.5% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 441 | 6.1% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 391 | 5.4% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 263 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 230 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 217 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 205 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 2,091 | 28.7% |
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 Seattle mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 3,086 | 42.4% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 825 | 11.3% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 502 | 6.9% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 405 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 366 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 307 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 302 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 214 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Arcing | 185 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 137 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 950 | 13.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Seattle departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 69% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $20,000,000 | Building fires | Catastrophic | Investigated |
| 2 | $2,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,179,259 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $875,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $775,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $600,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $559,800 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Seattle sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
123 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 | 16 | |
| 10-19 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 7 | |
| 30-39 | 24 | |
| 40-49 | 26 | |
| 50-59 | 20 | |
| 60-69 | 17 | |
| 70-79 | 9 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 10,399 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 3,312 | 37.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,243 | 36.9 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 817 | 39.8 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 594 | 41.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 494 | 28.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 443 | 39.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 420 | 49.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 360 | 34.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Natural | 294 | 37.0 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 290 | 31.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 289 | 35.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 280 | 46.6 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.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Seattle.
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.