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Seattle's Two Fire Seasons: Summer Brush Fires and Winter Illegal Burns

Published October 13, 2026 · 8 minute read

Seattle has two outdoor fire seasons, and they run in opposite directions. In summer, brush and bark-mulch fires climb from a handful a month to well over a hundred: Seattle Fire logged 162 brush fires in July 2026, compared with 7 in December 2025. In winter the pattern flips. Calls coded "Illegal Burn" peaked in January, at 322, more than twice July's 148, the lowest month of the year.

We counted seven outdoor and small fire types in the city's Seattle Fire 911 data for October 2025 through September 2026, month by month. Two follow the weather in opposite ways, four show little seasonal pattern, and one is a reminder of how small the "fire" part of the fire department's workload actually is.

Summer: brush and bark fires

Brush fires and bark fires together totaled 715 for the year. Of those, 473, about two-thirds, came in June, July and August. July alone had 218, nearly twice as many as the six months from October through March combined (115). Bark fires are the most seasonal type in the data: none in December 2025 or February 2026, one in January and 56 in July.

"Bark fire" refers to burning landscaping mulch, the shredded bark that lines planting beds outside apartment buildings, offices, parking lots and freeway ramps. Dry mulch smolders easily, and the Seattle Fire Department has repeatedly pointed at a specific source: discarded smoking materials. Its prevention guidance tells people to "dispose of smoking materials in proper receptacles and douse in water, not in planters, beauty bark or out of your vehicle window" (SFD Fireline, July 2022).

The numbers line up with what the department said publicly this summer. In its August 6, 2026 burn-ban announcement, SFD said it had responded to more than 350 bark and brush fires since Memorial Day (SFD Fireline). The dataset's brush and bark counts for June and July 2026 alone add up to 326, before the last week of May and the first days of August are included.

One year of data is one summer's weather. Seasonal brush fire counts swing considerably from year to year: SFD reported 27 bark and brush-related fires in June 2022, a cool and wet month, against 74 in June 2021 (SFD Fireline). The 2026 data had 108 in June. The shape, a sharp peak in July and August, is the durable part; the height of the peak depends on how dry the summer is.

Winter: illegal burns

"Illegal Burn" was the most common outdoor fire call in the data by a wide margin: 2,874 incidents, about 46 percent of all seven types combined and more than 1,100 ahead of the next most common, rubbish fires (1,719). It is a dispatch category for reports of a fire burning where it should not be, such as an open fire outdoors, burning debris, or a fire in a container. The code reflects what the caller reported; it does not record what the crew found.

Illegal burn calls averaged about 10.4 a day in January and about 4.8 a day in July. Across the six cold months (October through March) there were 1,652 such calls, against 1,222 in the six warmer months. The plausible explanation is warming fires: in cold, wet weather, people without adequate shelter or heat are more likely to light fires to keep warm, and those fires are more likely to be seen and reported. The data cannot confirm that. It records a call type, not who lit the fire or why.

The winter pattern is also not a smooth curve. Counts dropped from January through July and then jumped back up in August (258) and September (246). We cannot tell from this data why. One possibility is reporting: from August 7, 2026, Seattle was under a stage 2 burn ban that prohibited backyard fire pits and campfires, so outdoor fires that would normally be legal may have been reported as illegal. That is an untested explanation, not a finding.

The fires with no season

The other four types barely respond to the calendar. Rubbish fires ranged from 98 (September) to 177 (December), dumpster fires from 25 to 51, and car fires from 16 to 32. There is month-to-month variation, but no summer surge or winter climb comparable to the two types above. Whatever starts these fires, it is not strongly tied to the weather: a dumpster or a car burns about as readily in January as in July.

Put together, the seven types produced 6,216 incidents, about 5.5 percent of the department's 112,001 incidents for the year. August was the busiest month (611), followed by July (602) and January (586): the winter illegal-burn peak nearly offsets the summer brush peak, and the August rebound in illegal burn calls pushed that month to the top.

Fires in buildings are a small number

The "Fire in Building" dispatch type accounted for 250 incidents in twelve months, between 15 and 33 a month. That is fewer than the 2,097 elevator rescues in the same period and less than a tenth of illegal burn calls. One caution: a reported structure fire can be dispatched under several call types depending on the building and the information the caller gives, so 250 is not a count of every building fire in Seattle. It is still a useful indicator of how rarely a working fire in a building is the reason a fire engine is on the road. Our guide to Seattle Fire response codes explains how fire dispatch types differ.

All seven types by month

Bold marks each type's highest month. October to December are 2025; January to September are 2026.

What residents can do

The summer peak is mostly preventable, and the rules about when you can burn are specific. Here is what the city and the regional air agency say.

Recreational fires in Seattle

Seattle Fire's published rules for recreational fires, last updated October 2024 (SFD Client Assistance Memo 5022), allow a backyard fire without a fire department permit only if it meets these conditions:

• No more than three feet in diameter and two feet high.
• At least 25 feet from any structure or combustible material.
• Burning only firewood or charcoal. Garbage, yard waste, paper, plastics and treated wood are not allowed.
• Attended by an adult until it is completely out, with a way to put it out on hand: a shovel and two buckets of water, a charged garden hose, or a 4-A rated fire extinguisher.
• Only when no burn ban is in effect, and not in places where fires are prohibited, such as parks and school grounds, unless specifically authorized.

The fire department can order a fire put out if it does not meet these conditions or becomes unsafe.

Winter air quality burn bans

In the colder months, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency calls air quality burn bans when wood smoke builds up. According to the agency (PSCAA burn ban FAQ):

• A stage 1 ban prohibits all outdoor burning, including recreational fires, and the use of wood-burning fireplaces and uncertified wood stoves and inserts, unless the household has an approved exemption because it has no other adequate source of heat.
• A stage 2 ban also prohibits certified wood stoves, inserts and pellet stoves, again with an exemption only for approved households without another adequate heat source.
• You can check status on the agency's burn ban line at 1-800-595-4341 or on its website.

Summer fire safety burn bans

Summer bans are a separate thing, issued for fire danger rather than air quality. On August 7, 2026, the City of Seattle joined King County under a stage 2 burn ban that prohibited outdoor fires using firewood or charcoal, including backyard fire pits and campfires; manufactured devices such as barbecues and patio warmers used according to manufacturer instructions remained allowed (SFD Fireline). Later that month, SFD attributed a South Park house fire, which spread from a shed to a fence and a covered deck, to a backyard firepit during the ban (SFD Fireline).

Preventing bark and brush fires

SFD's dry-weather guidance (SFD Fireline) focuses on a few habits:

• Put cigarettes out in a proper receptacle and douse them, never in planters, beauty bark, or out a car window.
• Remove dead plants, long grass and weeds near your home, and clear roofs and gutters of needles and leaves.
• Keep lawns watered or cut short if they have gone brown.
• If your home backs onto a greenbelt or sits on a slope, keep dry vegetation cleared from below and around the structure.
• Do not park or drive on dry grass; hot exhaust parts can ignite it.

If you see a brush fire, call 911 right away, as SFD advises.

Related reading

For the hour-by-hour picture of all fire and EMS calls, see When Seattle Calls the Fire Department. For how the city's fire stations divide up coverage, see Seattle Fire Department Stations: How Coverage Actually Works, and for the overall call mix, the ten most common 911 call types.

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