In 2025, fire departments serving Unalaska responded to 10 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 80% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
58 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $326K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 3 | — | |
| 2022 | 11 | — | |
| 2023 | 18 | +63.6% | |
| 2024 | 16 | -11.1% | |
| 2025 | 10 | -37.5% |
* Well below Unalaska'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 3 building fires Unalaska departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 29 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 4 | 13.8% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 4 | 13.8% | |
| 3 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 2 | 6.9% | |
| 4 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 6.9% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 2 | 6.9% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 6.9% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 2 | 6.9% | |
| 8 | Exterior stairway, ramp, or fire escape | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Egress/exit, other | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 8 | 27.6% |
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 Unalaska mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 8 | 27.6% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 7 | 24.1% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 5 | 17.2% | |
| 4 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 2 | 6.9% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Incendiary device | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1 | 3.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Unalaska departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $500 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Unalaska sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 2 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 117 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 | 100 | 21.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 17 | 35.6 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 | 99685 | 58 |
Six Alaska cities with population within ±25% of Unalaska. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Unalaska.
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.