In 2025, fire departments serving Alum Creek responded to 46 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 93% of all calls.
May peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
261 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $110K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 25 | — | |
| 2022 | 40 | — | |
| 2023 | 59 | +47.5% | |
| 2024 | 91 | +54.2% | |
| 2025 | 46 | -49.5% |
* Well below Alum Creek'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 1 building fires Alum Creek departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 53 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 | 53 | 100.0% |
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 Alum Creek mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 53 | 100.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Alum Creek departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Alum Creek sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 68,025 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Fireworks | 4,637 | 29.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Fireworks | 4,552 | 48.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Fireworks | 3,706 | 38.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,484 | 36.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,475 | 48.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Fireworks | 3,358 | 34.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,328 | 11.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Fireworks | 3,186 | 40.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Fireworks | 3,171 | 25.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,082 | 19.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,859 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,533 | 48.5 mi |
Top 7 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six West Virginia cities with population within ±25% of Alum Creek. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Alum Creek.
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.