In 2025, fire departments serving Snowflake responded to 75 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K 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 51% of all calls.
May peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
387 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $1.4M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 100 | — | |
| 2022 | 109 | +9.0% | |
| 2023 | 72 | -33.9% | |
| 2024* | 31 | — | |
| 2025 | 75 | — |
* Well below Snowflake'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 8 building fires Snowflake departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 78 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 | 19 | 24.4% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 9 | 11.5% | |
| 3 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 7 | 9.0% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 6 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 5 | 6.4% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 4 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 3 | 3.8% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Storage area, other | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 18 | 23.1% |
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 Snowflake mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 27 | 34.6% | |
| 2 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 11 | 14.1% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 6 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 6 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 5 | 6.4% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 5 | 6.4% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 4 | 5.1% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 3.8% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 7 | 9.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Snowflake departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Snowflake sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 689,126 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 259,158 | 36.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 209,704 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 48,443 | 19.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 45,977 | 42.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 24,109 | 46.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 9,005 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 8,690 | 35.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 6,975 | 35.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 6,399 | 38.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 6,262 | 37.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 5,491 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 5,300 | 46.7 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 Snowflake. 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.