In 2025, fire departments across Illinois responded to 117,509 fire and hazmat incidents — including the Red Shale RX wildfire that burned 1,291 acres in 2024.
Illinois ranks #39 in cumulative acres burned in the NIFC perimeter atlas. Hover any state to compare; click to drill in.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Top five categories cover roughly 54% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Feb dips. (Latest year: 2025.)
5-year cumulative seasonality smooths out single-year noise. Jul peaks across the window; Feb dips.
561,791 incidents from 2021 through 2025 across all reporting departments.
| Year | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 104,361 | |
| 2022 | 105,907 | |
| 2023 | 116,947 | |
| 2024 | 117,067 | |
| 2025 | 117,509 |
For the 17,555 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.
Combined NFIRS + FPA-FOD totals across the available reporting window. Click a cause to see how it plays out nationwide.
| # | Cause | Incidents | FOD vs NFIRS | Acres | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined / missing | 41,468 | 1,283 / 40,185 | 9,992 | |
| 2 | Arson / incendiarism | 11,217 | 251 / 10,966 | 3,144 | |
| 3 | Equipment & vehicle use | 9,972 | 157 / 9,815 | 2,238 | |
| 4 | Natural (lightning) | 2,207 | 41 / 2,166 | 1,109 | |
| 5 | Other causes | 1,914 | 9 / 1,905 | 47 | |
| 6 | Debris & open burning | 932 | 932 / 0 | 7,775 | |
| 7 | Recreation & ceremony | 133 | 133 / 0 | 721 | |
| 8 | Smoking | 125 | 125 / 0 | 441 | |
| 9 | Power generation / utility | 44 | 44 / 0 | 243 | |
| 10 | Railroad operations | 26 | 26 / 0 | 100 | |
| 11 | Fireworks | 13 | 13 / 0 | 36 | |
| 12 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 8 | 8 / 0 | 856 |
Topical groupings of NFIRS incident types — building, cooking, electrical, vehicle, and more. Each links to its national rollup.
| # | Topic | Incidents | Loss | Deaths | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gas leaks | 153,514 | $879K | 1 | |
| 2 | Building fires | 140,689 | $2.6B | 402 | |
| 3 | Outdoor fires | 86,410 | $15.5M | 10 | |
| 4 | Electrical / wiring | 84,085 | $1.7M | 0 | |
| 5 | Wildland fires | 38,243 | $9.1M | 7 | |
| 6 | Vehicle fires | 36,165 | $355.0M | 113 | |
| 7 | Rubbish / refuse | 35,979 | $8.8M | 3 | |
| 8 | Cooking-related | 29,209 | $2.2M | 0 | |
| 9 | Arson | 10,794 | $44.6M | 18 |
Largest single-incident property losses statewide in 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 72% of Illinois's total.
| # | Property loss | City | Type | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $999,999,999 | LENZBURG | Building fires | Catastrophic |
| 2 | $10,000,000 | Momence | Building fires | Catastrophic |
| 3 | $10,000,000 | Joliet | Building fires | Catastrophic |
| 4 | $9,999,999 | MARISSA | Fires in structures other than in a building | Catastrophic |
| 5 | $5,500,000 | Glen Carbon | Building fires | Catastrophic |
| 6 | $5,000,000 | JUSTICE | Building fires | Catastrophic |
| 7 | $5,000,000 | Hartford | Aircraft fire | Catastrophic |
| 8 | $4,000,000 | Rantoul | Building fires | Major |
| 9 | $3,600,000 | Chicago Ridge | Building fires | Major |
| 10 | $3,516,463 | Chicago | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Major |
Per-capita rates let us compare Illinois apples-to-apples to the national average.
12 largest reporting cities by population.
Top 10 counties by reported NFIRS incidents in 2025.
| # | County | Incidents | Population |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cook County | 44,847 | 5,061,966 |
| 2 | DuPage County | 6,240 | 879,876 |
| 3 | Lake County | 5,428 | 665,418 |
| 4 | Will County | 4,954 | 565,043 |
| 5 | Kane County | 4,253 | 548,682 |
| 6 | St. Clair County | 3,630 | 204,429 |
| 7 | Winnebago County | 2,993 | 235,659 |
| 8 | Madison County | 2,899 | 221,483 |
| 9 | McHenry County | 2,279 | 273,627 |
| 10 | Sangamon County | 2,193 | 164,658 |
Top 10 counties by NFIRS incidents per 1,000 residents (population ≥ 50,000). Surfaces signal beyond the mega-counties.
| # | County | Inc / 1k | Incidents | Population | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kankakee County | 23.87 | 1,921 | 80,472 | |
| 2 | Vermilion County | 20.09 | 1,091 | 54,293 | |
| 3 | St. Clair County | 17.76 | 3,630 | 204,429 | |
| 4 | Macon County | 17.23 | 1,587 | 92,095 | |
| 5 | LaSalle County | 17.17 | 1,466 | 85,401 | |
| 6 | DeKalb County | 13.53 | 1,191 | 88,058 | |
| 7 | Sangamon County | 13.32 | 2,193 | 164,658 | |
| 8 | Madison County | 13.09 | 2,899 | 221,483 | |
| 9 | Winnebago County | 12.70 | 2,993 | 235,659 | |
| 10 | Tazewell County | 11.52 | 1,247 | 108,244 |
By incident count in 2025.
By acres burned. Sourced from the NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History.
| # | Name | Year | Agency | Acres |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Red Shale RX | 2024 | FWS | 1,290 |
| 2 | Herrin Flats RX | 2024 | FWS | 1,134 |
| 3 | Beach RX | 2024 | FWS | 864 |
| 4 | Hampton North RX | 2024 | FWS | 708 |
| 5 | Hampton RX | 2024 | FWS | 668 |
| 6 | Grassy Creek 2 RX | 2024 | FWS | 621 |
| 7 | Chamness RX | 2024 | FWS | 610 |
| 8 | Greenbriar RX | 2024 | FWS | 590 |
| 9 | COR - Devils Kitchen West RX | 2024 | FWS | 468 |
| 10 | Smith RX | 2024 | FWS | 366 |
85 perimeters and 10,379 acres recorded since 1900.
| Decade | Fires | Acres | Activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010s | 33 | 1,937 | |
| 2020s | 52 | 8,442 |
FPA-FOD ignitions by decade, broken down by cause category. Each row sums to the decade's total; the bars show the share each cause contributed.
| Decade | Total fires | Share by cause |
|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 203 | |
| 2000s | 992 | |
| 2010s | 1,702 | |
| 2020s | 125 |
FPA-FOD ignitions by month, all years on record. Distinct from NFIRS — captures unreported wildlands across rural and remote terrain. 3,022 ignitions total.
5,361 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 5-year window. Age and gender are coarse-binned for privacy.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 198 | |
| 10-19 | 128 | |
| 20-29 | 854 | |
| 30-39 | 1,113 | |
| 40-49 | 1,061 | |
| 50-59 | 818 | |
| 60-69 | 383 | |
| 70-79 | 216 | |
| 80+ | 150 |
State totals reflect incidents reported by fire departments to NFIRS for 2025. The 5-year totals span 2021 through 2025. Wildfire perimeters and decade-by-decade counts are sourced from the NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History service. NFIRS reporting is voluntary, so totals are a strong indicator rather than a complete census.