Confirmed fires at Seattle camps fell by half; trash and open fire calls didn't

What this chart asks

Did 911 calls for trash and open fires fall along with the fires the Seattle Fire Department verified at tents and RVs?

Why it is shown this way

• Two lines on one zero-based axis show that one count halved while the other stayed level.
• Full years are used because the city publishes verified encampment fires by year; 2026 is left out because neither count is complete.
• The note under the chart says the two lines are different measures, not parts of one total; no line is drawn for it, so no year looks singled out.

Data and accessibility

The chart's data and images are in the strip under it.

Dataset seattle-fire-911-trash-open-burn-calls, analysis calls-vs-verified-full-year

Sources

This chart draws on the sources of the dataset versions it visualizes.

Seattle Fire Department 911 calls for illegal burns, rubbish fires and encampment fires, 2004 to 2026

1. City of Seattle open data portal, Seattle Real Time Fire 911 Calls (dataset kzjm-xkqj), published by the Seattle Fire Department Every incident the Seattle Fire Department dispatched since November 2003, with its dispatch call type, time and location; counted here through its public API (https://data.seattle.gov/resource/kzjm-xkqj.json)

   Retrieved November 9, 2026. Public domain (City of Seattle open data). Public open data; FactHub publishes only yearly counts it computed.

   Reliability: Government. The fire department's own dispatch log, updated about every five minutes. The call type is what the unit was sent for, not the cause found on scene.

2. Office of the Mayor, City of Seattle: One Seattle Homelessness Action Plan posts Q4 data updates (January 27, 2023) Fires at tent and RV encampments in 2022

   Retrieved November 9, 2026. Public government document. Linked; FactHub repeats only the figures it read.

   Reliability: Government. Has a stake in this finding. The mayor's office reporting results of its own homelessness plan, using Seattle Fire Department data. It counts fires at tent and RV encampments, a later judgment separate from the dispatch call type.

3. Office of the Mayor, City of Seattle: One Seattle Homelessness Action Plan posts Q4 and year-end 2023 data (February 17, 2024) Fires at tent and RV encampments in 2023

   Retrieved November 9, 2026. Public government document. Linked; FactHub repeats only the figures it read.

   Reliability: Government. Has a stake in this finding. The mayor's office reporting results of its own homelessness plan, using Seattle Fire Department data. It counts fires at tent and RV encampments, a later judgment separate from the dispatch call type.

4. Office of the Mayor, City of Seattle: One Seattle Homelessness Action Plan posts Q1 2024 data updates (May 17, 2024) Fires at tent and RV encampments, January to March 2024

   Retrieved November 9, 2026. Public government document. Linked; FactHub repeats only the figures it read.

   Reliability: Government. Has a stake in this finding. The mayor's office reporting results of its own homelessness plan, using Seattle Fire Department data. It counts fires at tent and RV encampments, a later judgment separate from the dispatch call type.

5. Office of the Mayor, City of Seattle: One Seattle Homelessness Action Plan posts Q3 2024 data updates (December 3, 2024) Fires at tent and RV encampments, April to June and July to September 2024

   Retrieved November 9, 2026. Public government document. Linked; FactHub repeats only the figures it read.

   Reliability: Government. Has a stake in this finding. The mayor's office reporting results of its own homelessness plan, using Seattle Fire Department data. It counts fires at tent and RV encampments, a later judgment separate from the dispatch call type.

6. City of Seattle Human Services Department, UCT Quarterly Reporting (Response to Statement of Legislative Intent MO-004S-A), 2025 end-of-year report Verified encampment and RV fires in 2024 and 2025, and by quarter in 2025 (Figure 23)

   Retrieved November 9, 2026. Public government document. Linked; FactHub repeats only the figures it read.

   Reliability: Government. Has a stake in this finding. The Human Services Department's quarterly report to the City Council on its encampment outreach team, with fires the Seattle Fire Department verified at tent or RV encampments. It reports the results of the city's own encampment work.

7. City of Seattle Human Services Department, UCT Quarterly Reporting (Response to Statement of Legislative Intent MO-004S-A), August 14, 2026 Verified encampment and RV fires, January to June 2026 (Figure 23)

   Retrieved November 9, 2026. Public government document. Linked; FactHub repeats only the figures it read.

   Reliability: Government. Has a stake in this finding. The Human Services Department's quarterly report to the City Council on its encampment outreach team, with fires the Seattle Fire Department verified at tent or RV encampments. It reports the results of the city's own encampment work.

8. Washington State Office of Financial Management, April 1 official population estimates of cities, towns and counties (ofm_april1_population_final.xlsx) Seattle population on April 1 of each year, 2020 (census) to 2026

   Retrieved November 9, 2026. Public government data. Linked; FactHub repeats only the Seattle figures it read.

   Reliability: Government. The state agency whose yearly city estimates are used to share out state revenue; 2020 is the census count.

Limitations

• Two different counts: calls are what crews were sent for; encampment fires are those the fire department confirmed at a tent or RV. They are not matched call by call.
• The gap between the lines is not a count of fires away from camps.
• The 2022 and 2023 verified counts come from the mayor's office and the 2024 and 2025 counts from the Human Services Department's reports to the City Council.