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In 2025, fire departments serving Sweet Home responded to 125 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $225K 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 54% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
697 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $4.3M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 88 | — | |
| 2022 | 143 | +62.5% | |
| 2023 | 186 | +30.1% | |
| 2024 | 155 | -16.7% | |
| 2025 | 125 | -19.4% |
For the 16 building fires Sweet Home departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 198 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 23 | 11.6% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 16 | 8.1% | |
| 3 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 13 | 6.6% | |
| 4 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 12 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 12 | 6.1% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 11 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 9 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Other | 8 | 4.0% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 7 | 3.5% | |
| 10 | Conduit, pipe, utility, or ventilation shaft | 6 | 3.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 81 | 40.9% |
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 Sweet Home mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 76 | 38.4% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 26 | 13.1% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 13 | 6.6% | |
| 4 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 12 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 10 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 9 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 8 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 6 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 5 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Heat source: other | 4 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 29 | 14.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Sweet Home departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 98% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $225,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $193,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $25,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $10,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $5,000 | Natural vegetation fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Sweet Home sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 591,867 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 | 193,573 | 38.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 173,393 | 28.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 79,734 | 43.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 18,086 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Smoking | 11,555 | 31.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 11,513 | 46.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 11,035 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 10,114 | 28.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 10,000 | 42.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Smoking | 8,709 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 7,357 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 6,747 | 46.9 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 Oregon cities with population within ±25% of Sweet Home. 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.