In 2025, fire departments serving Bardstown responded to 89 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $65K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Fire, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 57% of all calls.
Jan peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
568 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $1.6M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 102 | — | |
| 2022 | 131 | +28.4% | |
| 2023 | 134 | +2.3% | |
| 2024 | 112 | -16.4% | |
| 2025 | 89 | -20.5% |
For the 7 building fires Bardstown departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 210 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 | Outside area, other | 35 | 16.7% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 30 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 28 | 13.3% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 18 | 8.6% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 13 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 7 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Wall surface: exterior | 6 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Other | 5 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 5 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 5 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 58 | 27.6% |
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 Bardstown mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 78 | 37.1% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 26 | 12.4% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 25 | 11.9% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 14 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Cigarette | 12 | 5.7% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 7 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 7 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 7 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Heat source: other | 6 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 5 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 23 | 11.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bardstown departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 95% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $65,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $35,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $8,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bardstown sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
32 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 3 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 11 | |
| 40-49 | 9 | |
| 50-59 | 4 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,053 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 27.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 238 | 50.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 215 | 29.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Smoking | 201 | 31.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 170 | 44.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 144 | 29.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 132 | 46.2 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 125 | 30.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 117 | 28.3 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 17.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 38.6 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 44.1 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 40004 | 568 |
Six Kentucky cities with population within ±25% of Bardstown. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.