In 2025, fire departments serving Sun Valley responded to 145 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K 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.
Jul peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
597 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.1M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 43 | — | |
| 2022 | 124 | — | |
| 2023 | 130 | +4.8% | |
| 2024 | 155 | +19.2% | |
| 2025 | 145 | -6.5% |
* Well below Sun Valley'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 9 building fires Sun Valley departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 123 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 | 22.8% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 12 | 9.8% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 8 | 6.5% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 8 | 6.5% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 7 | 5.7% | |
| 6 | Storage area, other | 6 | 4.9% | |
| 7 | Other | 3 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 3 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Function area, other | 3 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 3 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 42 | 34.1% |
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 Sun Valley mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 73 | 59.3% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 16 | 13.0% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 7 | 5.7% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 6 | 4.9% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 2.4% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 2.4% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Multiple heat sources including multiple ignitions | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 6 | 4.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Sun Valley departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 83% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $50,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $48,284 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $40,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $15,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Sun Valley sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
6 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 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 750,766 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 98,960 | 29.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 94,220 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 83,599 | 37.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 51,386 | 19.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Natural | 47,133 | 28.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 47,029 | 21.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 46,800 | 29.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 41,545 | 5.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 36,142 | 23.5 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 22,674 | 33.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 16,988 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 16,284 | 30.9 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Nevada cities with population within ±25% of Sun Valley. 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.