In 2025, fire departments serving Alexandria responded to 74 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $75K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 80% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
345 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $1.6M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 77 | — | |
| 2022 | 105 | +36.4% | |
| 2023* | 27 | — | |
| 2024 | 62 | — | |
| 2025 | 74 | +19.4% |
* Well below Alexandria's usual volume. That almost always means one or more departments didn't submit a full year to NFIRS, not that fires dropped, so no year-over-year change is shown for it.
For the 26 building fires Alexandria departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 100 building fires investigators classified across 2021–2025. The room or location where ignition occurred — kitchens, bedrooms, exterior, vehicle areas — tells you where to focus prevention.
| # | Area of origin | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 28 | 28.0% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 13 | 13.0% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 9 | 9.0% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 7 | 7.0% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Function area, other | 4 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Other | 3 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 3 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Storage area, other | 3 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 3 | 3.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 22 | 22.0% |
NFIRS Heat Source (HEAT_SOURC) — the physical thing that started it. Spark or ember from operating equipment, an open flame, smoking materials, or hot embers from a fireplace are the leading culprits nationwide. Here's the Alexandria mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 44 | 44.0% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 11 | 11.0% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 9 | 9.0% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 8 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 7 | 7.0% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 6 | 6.0% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 4 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 1.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 6 | 6.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Alexandria departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 99% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $30,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Alexandria sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
6 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 2 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 30 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Recreation and ceremony | 20 | 24.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 44.1 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Indiana cities with population within ±25% of Alexandria. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Alexandria.
A 30-minute weekend can cut your home's exposure substantially. These four checklists are a good starting point.
Numbers reflect incidents reported by participating fire departments to the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) Public Data Release for calendar year 2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Per-capita comparisons use 2023 ACS population estimates. Wildland fire data complements NFIRS with NIFC and USFS perimeters. Active-fire counts come from a dated NIFC snapshot, not a live feed.