In 2025, fire departments serving Wailua responded to 62 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $3K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 79% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
227 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $822K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 38 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023 | 62 | — | |
| 2024 | 65 | +4.8% | |
| 2025 | 62 | -4.6% |
* Well below Wailua'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 0 building fires Wailua departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 32 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 | 18 | 56.2% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 15.6% | |
| 3 | Vehicle area, other | 3 | 9.4% | |
| 4 | Other | 1 | 3.1% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 3.1% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 3.1% | |
| 7 | Chute; laundry or mail, excluding trash chutes | 1 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 3.1% |
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 Wailua mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 21 | 65.6% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 3 | 9.4% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 6.2% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 2 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Fireworks | 1 | 3.1% | |
| 7 | Chemical, natural heat source, other | 1 | 3.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Wailua departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $3,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,000 | Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50 | Trash or rubbish fire, contained | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $1 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Wailua sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
21 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 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 4 | |
| 40-49 | 7 | |
| 50-59 | 10 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 10,282 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,000 | 25.6 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,150 | 24.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Recreation and ceremony | 750 | 21.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 652 | 5.1 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 640 | 4.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 1.1 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 5.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 0.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 220 | 5.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 13.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 13.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 4.1 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 Hawaii cities with population within ±25% of Wailua. 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.