In 2025, fire departments serving Silverdale responded to 83 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 52% of all calls.
Dec peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
654 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $3.2M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 150 | — | |
| 2022 | 178 | +18.7% | |
| 2023 | 191 | +7.3% | |
| 2024* | 52 | — | |
| 2025 | 83 | — |
* Well below Silverdale'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 5 building fires Silverdale departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 147 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 | 28 | 19.0% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 22 | 15.0% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 17 | 11.6% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 9 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 8 | 5.4% | |
| 6 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 6 | 4.1% | |
| 7 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 6 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Other | 5 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Cooking area, kitchen | 5 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 5 | 3.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 36 | 24.5% |
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 Silverdale mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 87 | 59.2% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 6 | 4.1% | |
| 3 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 6 | 4.1% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 5 | 3.4% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 5 | 3.4% | |
| 6 | Chemical reaction | 5 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 4 | 2.7% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 4 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 4 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 18 | 12.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Silverdale departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $5,000 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Silverdale sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 15,317 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 | 21.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 2,475 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,243 | 19.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Fireworks | 1,100 | 30.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 825 | 37.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 820 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 817 | 22.9 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 594 | 31.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 494 | 35.5 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 443 | 22.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 385 | 29.3 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 Washington cities with population within ±25% of Silverdale. 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.