In 2025, fire departments serving Ventura responded to 25 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Prescribed fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 72% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
41 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $100K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 2 | — | |
| 2022 | 8 | — | |
| 2023* | 3 | — | |
| 2024* | 3 | — | |
| 2025 | 25 | — |
* Well below Ventura'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 Ventura departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 7 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 | 4 | 57.1% | |
| 2 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 14.3% |
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 Ventura mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 5 | 71.4% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 14.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Ventura departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Ventura sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,634 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 24.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 177 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 150 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 24.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 85 | 43.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 80 | 33.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 80 | 40.5 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 60 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 47.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 47.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 36.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 19.4 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 | 50482 | 41 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Ventura. 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.