In 2025, fire departments serving Wenatchee responded to 280 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $400K 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 52% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,891 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $2.6M cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 401 | — | |
| 2022 | 441 | +10.0% | |
| 2023 | 380 | -13.8% | |
| 2024 | 389 | +2.4% | |
| 2025 | 280 | -28.0% |
For the 27 building fires Wenatchee departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 645 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 | Outside area, other | 141 | 21.9% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 113 | 17.5% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 52 | 8.1% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 40 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 36 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 33 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Other | 32 | 5.0% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 16 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 15 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 15 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 152 | 23.6% |
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 Wenatchee mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 405 | 62.8% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 31 | 4.8% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 28 | 4.3% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 28 | 4.3% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 26 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 18 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 15 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 13 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 13 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 11 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 57 | 8.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Wenatchee departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 84% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $227,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $111,326 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Wenatchee sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
7 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 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 955,415 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Natural | 140,000 | 27.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 88,483 | 29.4 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 80,053 | 13.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 74,800 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 71,209 | 33.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 43,874 | 17.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 43,373 | 40.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 41,404 | 30.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 37,266 | 16.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 36,817 | 32.5 mi | |
| 2004 | Natural | 29,700 | 45.7 mi | |
| 1994 | Smoking | 29,435 | 20.8 mi |
Top 5 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 Wenatchee. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Wenatchee.
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.