In 2025, fire departments serving Wasilla responded to 506 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $790K 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 58% of all calls.
Dec peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,270 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $15.2M cumulative property loss. 6 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 385 | — | |
| 2022 | 493 | +28.1% | |
| 2023 | 472 | -4.3% | |
| 2024 | 414 | -12.3% | |
| 2025 | 506 | +22.2% |
For the 86 building fires Wasilla departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,027 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 317 | 30.9% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 95 | 9.3% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 88 | 8.6% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 73 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 59 | 5.7% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 27 | 2.6% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 23 | 2.2% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 23 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 22 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 21 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 279 | 27.2% |
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 Wasilla mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 577 | 56.2% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 53 | 5.2% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 52 | 5.1% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 40 | 3.9% | |
| 5 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 35 | 3.4% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 31 | 3.0% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 31 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 26 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 26 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 22 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 134 | 13.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Wasilla departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 74% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $790,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $790,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $450,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $365,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Wasilla sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
24 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 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 8 | |
| 70-79 | 3 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 66,923 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Fireworks | 37,336 | 13.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 8,494 | 30.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,264 | 26.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Natural | 3,496 | 21.3 mi | |
| 2019 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3,288 | 37.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,692 | 25.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,314 | 25.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 777 | 39.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 461 | 4.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 383 | 12.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 367 | 41.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 303 | 16.3 mi |
Top 7 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Alaska cities with population within ±25% of Wasilla. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Wasilla.
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.