In 2025, fire departments serving Vancouver responded to 2,074 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.4M 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 47% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
9,793 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $43.5M cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,900 | — | |
| 2022 | 2,185 | +15.0% | |
| 2023 | 2,038 | -6.7% | |
| 2024 | 1,596 | -21.7% | |
| 2025 | 2,074 | +29.9% |
For the 110 building fires Vancouver departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 3,276 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 | 898 | 27.4% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 436 | 13.3% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 264 | 8.1% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 255 | 7.8% | |
| 5 | Other | 195 | 6.0% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 192 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 107 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 93 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 79 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 65 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 692 | 21.1% |
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 Vancouver mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 1,762 | 53.8% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 230 | 7.0% | |
| 3 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 182 | 5.6% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 164 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 135 | 4.1% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 115 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 99 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Arcing | 89 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Heat source: other | 85 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 85 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 330 | 10.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Vancouver departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 59% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,418,251 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $905,440 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $830,213 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $576,312 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $456,400 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $360,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $345,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $296,237 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Vancouver sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
5 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 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 265,896 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 | 138,054 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Fireworks | 48,488 | 33.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 24,995 | 35.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Smoking | 24,400 | 32.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 7,500 | 6.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 6,304 | 46.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,508 | 36.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,584 | 30.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,508 | 22.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,000 | 35.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 790 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 532 | 40.0 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 Vancouver. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Vancouver.
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.