In 2025, fire departments serving Washington responded to 6,867 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $3.0M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 82% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
26,040 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $73.7M cumulative property loss. 20 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 45 | — | |
| 2022 | 4,268 | — | |
| 2023 | 6,831 | +60.1% | |
| 2024 | 8,029 | +17.5% | |
| 2025 | 6,867 | -14.5% |
* Well below Washington'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 1,112 building fires Washington departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 6,536 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 | 2,403 | 36.8% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 936 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 412 | 6.3% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 317 | 4.9% | |
| 5 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 253 | 3.9% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 212 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Function area, other | 166 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 146 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 112 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 107 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1,472 | 22.5% |
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 Washington mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 3,708 | 56.7% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 651 | 10.0% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 446 | 6.8% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 320 | 4.9% | |
| 5 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 308 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 212 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 187 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 134 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 102 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 65 | 1.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 403 | 6.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Washington departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 43% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $3,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $2,500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $750,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $700,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $690,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Washington sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
48 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 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 9 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 6 | |
| 70-79 | 4 | |
| 80+ | 3 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,922 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 640 | 32.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Recreation and ceremony | 500 | 17.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 461 | 21.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 431 | 12.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 408 | 33.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Recreation and ceremony | 405 | 46.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 | 47.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 344 | 29.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 318 | 30.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 31.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 42.9 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.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Washington.
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.