In 2025, fire departments serving Soap Lake responded to 43 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $20K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 74% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
317 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $2.2M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 68 | — | |
| 2022 | 97 | +42.6% | |
| 2023 | 84 | -13.4% | |
| 2024* | 25 | — | |
| 2025 | 43 | — |
* Well below Soap Lake'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 1 building fires Soap Lake departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 89 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 | 17 | 19.1% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 11 | 12.4% | |
| 3 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 11 | 12.4% | |
| 4 | Other | 7 | 7.9% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 6 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 5 | 5.6% | |
| 8 | Function area, other | 4 | 4.5% | |
| 9 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 3 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 3 | 3.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 17 | 19.1% |
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 Soap Lake mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 28 | 31.5% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 17 | 19.1% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 7 | 7.9% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 5 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Fireworks | 3 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 3 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 3 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 3 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Heat source: other | 2 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 14 | 15.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Soap Lake departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $20,000 | Power line down | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Fire in portable building, fixed location | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $4,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $2,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Soap Lake sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,017,148 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 223,731 | 45.9 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 140,000 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 88,483 | 38.8 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 80,053 | 30.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 76,817 | 31.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 71,209 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 37,266 | 23.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25,000 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 23,324 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 22,672 | 40.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Other causes | 22,001 | 41.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 20,080 | 34.5 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 | 98851 | 317 |
Six Washington cities with population within ±25% of Soap Lake. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Soap Lake.
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.