A multiple-alarm fire — a fire severe enough to necessitate additional resources — is rare for the Champaign Fire Department to encounter.
But last spring, the department responded to two multiple-alarm fires in a single night.
Champaign Deputy Fire Marshall Jeremy Mitchell said this proved to be a daunting challenge for the predominantly young fire department employees, the majority of who have less than five years of experience.
“Earlier in the evening, residents had reported flickering lights, hearing popping noises, things like that,” Mitchell said. “The insurance investigation and so forth is still ongoing.”
The fires were just two of 191 total fire events the department has responded to this year, as of Oct. 1. The most prominent fire types in Champaign this year include dumpster and outside waste fires, kitchen fires and vehicle fires.

Dumpster and outside waste fires made up 56 — or 29% — of the 191 fire events so far this year, making it the most common type of fire. Mitchell said he found this statistic surprising.
“I would not have expected them to be as much of a fire problem as they are, but they are,” Mitchell said. “It’ll actually take the involvement of a couple of different city departments to collaborate and come up with something lasting to fight that.”
Of the 191 total fire events the department responded to this year, 15 were true structure fires, about 8%.
This number is an improvement compared to previous years, Mitchell said.
“Our historical average for this point in a given year is approximately 37 structure fires, so these fires are significantly down, which is a good thing,” he said.

Mitchell wears “many hats” for the fire department; he is responsible for fire code enforcement, the community risk reduction program and data analysis.
“After the pandemic, we lost a lot of our community footprint, being able to engage our different vulnerable population groups in fire safety,” Mitchell said. “That culminated in 2022: We had 66 structure fires, which is the most since the Champaign Fire Department began keeping records.”
Mitchell said he seeks to emphasize fire prevention through education, with his primary audience being young children.
“Something else that was happening in that time that we’re still having trouble getting a handle on is that we aren’t able to get back into the public schools yet and speak with children the way we’re hoping to,” Mitchell said.
Of the 191 total fire events the department has responded to this year, 36 — or 19% — were kitchen fires, which represent the most common fire incident inside a structure, Mitchell said.

The majority of kitchen fires this year took place in Champaign’s Campustown.
This coincides with the Red Cross website for fire risk assessment — which breaks down fire risk by census tract — according to which Champaign County has an overall score of 49 out of 100.
Certain tracts have higher fire risk scores, often in the 75 to 90 range; the area with the greatest risk for fires in the county is Campustown, several parts of which scored 93 for fire risk.

The frequency of kitchen fires in Campustown is due in large part to it being the most densely populated area of Champaign, characterized by its many tall buildings, Mitchell said.
“I will tell you way back in 1998 when I was a freshman, there were about 12 high-rise buildings in the city of Champaign,” Mitchell said. “Now, we have about 36, with more being planned.”
In Champaign, a high-rise building has occupied floors more than 75 feet above the “lowest level of fire department vehicle access,” per the city’s Code of Ordinances.
It is Campustown’s predominantly student population, however, that serves as the primary explanation for the college town’s cluster of kitchen fires, Mitchell said.
“You’re studying, maybe you work, you’re involved in an RSO — or maybe more than one — or you have roommates, and sometimes you just forget or you lose track,” Mitchell said. “So it’s the inattention, making sure that you know you have a background just cooking simple things.”
Mitchell said he wants to create more engagement in the campus community through fire safety education particularly aimed towards kitchen safety.
“My ideal scenario would be the instructional kitchen at ARC,” Mitchell said. “Maybe not make it fire department exclusive, but if we can tag on to you as you’re going through a cooking lesson.”