In 2025, fire departments serving Talkeetna responded to 19 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $38K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 58% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
76 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $105K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 17 | — | |
| 2022 | 23 | +35.3% | |
| 2023* | 7 | — | |
| 2024 | 10 | — | |
| 2025 | 19 | +90.0% |
* Well below Talkeetna'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 Talkeetna departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 26 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 | Outside area, other | 9 | 34.6% | |
| 2 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 3 | 11.5% | |
| 3 | Wildland, woods | 2 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Other | 1 | 3.8% | |
| 5 | Corridor, mall | 1 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Interior stairway or ramp | 1 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Function area, other | 1 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 3.8% | |
| 9 | Dining room, cafeteria bar area, beverage service | 1 | 3.8% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 3.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 5 | 19.2% |
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 Talkeetna mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 8 | 30.8% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 5 | 19.2% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 5 | 19.2% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 1 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Explosive, fireworks, other | 1 | 3.8% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 1 | 3.8% | |
| 10 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 3.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Talkeetna departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $38,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Talkeetna sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 24 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 60,643 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Fireworks | 37,336 | 47.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 8,494 | 27.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,264 | 32.7 mi | |
| 2019 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3,288 | 18.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 1,701 | 42.4 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,314 | 41.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 367 | 12.3 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 250 | 29.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 46.9 mi | |
| 1997 | Natural | 100 | 27.6 mi | |
| 2019 | Natural | 84 | 10.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 68 | 41.0 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 | 99676 | 76 |
Six Alaska cities with population within ±25% of Talkeetna. 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.