In 2025, fire departments serving Spokane responded to 2,382 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $650K 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 55% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
12,917 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $49.4M cumulative property loss. 5 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2,889 | — | |
| 2022 | 2,955 | +2.3% | |
| 2023 | 3,022 | +2.3% | |
| 2024 | 1,669 | -44.8% | |
| 2025 | 2,382 | +42.7% |
For the 154 building fires Spokane departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 2,566 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 | 528 | 20.6% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 278 | 10.8% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 218 | 8.5% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 159 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Other | 114 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 112 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 101 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 83 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 82 | 3.2% | |
| 10 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 75 | 2.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 816 | 31.8% |
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 Spokane mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 1,426 | 55.6% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 172 | 6.7% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 124 | 4.8% | |
| 4 | Cigarette lighter | 102 | 4.0% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 98 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 91 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 88 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 70 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 60 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 56 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 279 | 10.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Spokane departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 42% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $650,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $500,000 | Electrical wiring/equipment problem, other | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $471,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Spokane sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
63 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 | 5 | |
| 30-39 | 11 | |
| 40-49 | 5 | |
| 50-59 | 9 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 3 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 296,426 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 127,430 | 38.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 64,007 | 42.6 mi | |
| 1998 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 18,120 | 49.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 18,117 | 33.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15,269 | 26.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Firearms and explosives use | 10,552 | 31.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,017 | 14.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 5,046 | 30.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,983 | 35.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 3,020 | 11.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 2,918 | 45.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,172 | 32.4 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.
Six Washington cities with population within ±25% of Spokane. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Spokane.
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.