In 2025, fire departments serving Sequim responded to 285 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Authorized controlled burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 83% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,297 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $5.5M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 254 | — | |
| 2022 | 268 | +5.5% | |
| 2023 | 246 | -8.2% | |
| 2024 | 244 | -0.8% | |
| 2025 | 285 | +16.8% |
For the 28 building fires Sequim departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 274 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 | 36 | 13.1% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 33 | 12.0% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 27 | 9.9% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 24 | 8.8% | |
| 5 | Other | 22 | 8.0% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 15 | 5.5% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 13 | 4.7% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 11 | 4.0% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 8 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 8 | 2.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 77 | 28.1% |
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 Sequim mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 79 | 28.8% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 31 | 11.3% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 29 | 10.6% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 24 | 8.8% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 22 | 8.0% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 17 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 13 | 4.7% | |
| 8 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 10 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 9 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 8 | 2.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 32 | 11.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Sequim departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 95% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $137,468 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $97,871 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $9,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Sequim sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
12 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 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 16,213 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 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 2,815 | 41.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 2,475 | 23.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,243 | 26.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Fireworks | 1,100 | 40.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 825 | 28.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 820 | 19.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 817 | 27.3 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 443 | 23.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 17.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 385 | 32.8 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 299 | 30.6 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 | 98382 | 1,297 |
Six Washington cities with population within ±25% of Sequim. 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.