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

What this dataset measures

Built for a fact check of whether Seattle's 911 calls for trash and open fires are at a record. These are the three call types a 2021 news report said the fire department's encampment-fire count draws on (illegal burns, rubbish fires and encampment fires). January to October is used so 2026 can be compared with the same months of earlier years. The city's verified encampment-fire counts are included so readers can compare calls with fires confirmed at tents and RVs.

Geography

Seattle, Washington

Unit of observation

Count of dispatched incidents by year and call type (and by area), plus the city's published counts of encampment fires by period

Update cadence

One-time release; the dispatch log updates about every five minutes and can be revised

Curator

FactHub Research Team

Curated data tables

These related tables form this versioned dataset release. Each table has its own downloadable file and field definitions.

911 fire calls by call type and year

One row per year, period (January-October or Full year) and call type.

Unit of observation: Year, period and call type

View this table

seattle-fire-calls-by-type.csv text/csv · 6.6 KB (6,755 bytes)

5 field definitions

Field	Type	Meaning	Units	Value type
year	integer	Calendar year of the dispatch.	—	observed
period	string	January-October (January 1 to October 31) or Full year.	—	derived
call_type	string	Plain-language call type.	—	derived
dispatch_type	string	The call type exactly as the dispatch log records it.	—	observed
calls	integer	Incidents dispatched with that call type in that year and period, citywide. 0 means none were dispatched; the Encampment Fire type was first used on August 6, 2021.	incidents	observed

911 fire calls in two central areas

One row per year and area, January to October, the three call types combined.

Unit of observation: Year and area

View this table

seattle-fire-calls-by-area.csv text/csv · 943 bytes

3 field definitions

Field	Type	Meaning	Units	Value type
year	integer	Calendar year.	—	observed
area	string	Downtown: latitude 47.598 to 47.615 and longitude -122.345 to -122.325. Chinatown-International District and Little Saigon: latitude 47.590 to 47.605 and longitude -122.330 to -122.300. The boxes are our approximations of the neighborhoods and overlap slightly.	—	derived
calls	integer	Illegal Burn, Rubbish Fire and Encampment Fire incidents in the box, January to October.	incidents	observed

City counts of fires verified at tent and RV encampments

One row per period the city published.

Unit of observation: Reporting period

View this table

seattle-encampment-fire-tally.csv text/csv · 1.4 KB (1,391 bytes)

6 field definitions

Field	Type	Meaning	Units	Value type
period	string	The period as published.	—	observed
start	date	First day of the period.	—	derived
end	date	Last day of the period.	—	derived
fires	integer	Fires the fire department verified at a tent or RV encampment, as published.	fires	observed
published_by	string	Publisher.	—	observed
source_url	string	Page the figure was read from.	—	observed

Saved analyses

Sources

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.

License: FactHub's selection, cleaning and combined tables are licensed under CC BY 4.0. Source data keeps the terms listed above (terms).

Limitations and reproducibility

Reproducible from public sources: Counted on November 9, 2026 with the city's Socrata API at https://data.seattle.gov/resource/kzjm-xkqj.json: $select=date_extract_y(datetime) as yr,type,count(*) as n, $where=datetime >= '2004-01-01T00:00:00' AND datetime < '2026-11-01T00:00:00' AND date_extract_m(datetime) <= 10 AND type in('Illegal Burn','Rubbish Fire','Encampment Fire'), $group=yr,type. Full years drop the month filter and end at 2026-01-01. Area counts add the latitude and longitude bounds given for each box. The city's verified encampment-fire counts were copied from the documents listed in each row (Figure 23 of each Human Services Department report).

• A dispatch call type is what crews were sent for, not the cause found on scene, so a call is not a confirmed fire or a confirmed encampment fire.
• Illegal burns include cooking, warming and backyard fires.
• The Encampment Fire call type began on August 6, 2021; before then such fires were dispatched under other types.
• Other outdoor fire types (brush, bark, dumpster) are not counted here.
• Area boxes are approximations of neighborhoods.
• The city's counts of verified encampment fires use the fire department's own judgment of which fires were at a tent or RV; they are a different measure from dispatch calls.
• The dispatch log can be revised; all counts were made on November 9, 2026.