In 2025, fire departments serving Belington responded to 66 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $60K 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 74% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
320 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $569K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 67 | — | |
| 2022 | 86 | +28.4% | |
| 2023* | 35 | — | |
| 2024 | 66 | — | |
| 2025 | 66 | +0.0% |
* Well below Belington'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 34 building fires Belington departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 31 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 6 | 19.4% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 6 | 19.4% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 9.7% | |
| 4 | Vehicle area, other | 3 | 9.7% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 2 | 6.5% | |
| 6 | Structural area, other | 2 | 6.5% | |
| 7 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Cell, test | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 10 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 5 | 16.1% |
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 Belington mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 21 | 67.7% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 4 | 12.9% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 2 | 6.5% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 2 | 6.5% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 6 | Candle | 1 | 3.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Belington departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 97% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $60,000 | Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $8,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Belington sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
11 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 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 8,032 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,800 | 37.4 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,611 | 36.3 mi | |
| 2019 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1,289 | 37.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 546 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 428 | 38.3 mi | |
| 2017 | Recreation and ceremony | 197 | 36.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 180 | 41.6 mi | |
| 2009 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 150 | 10.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 27.6 mi | |
| 2009 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 125 | 10.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 121 | 38.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Fireworks | 120 | 43.5 mi |
Top 4 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 Belington. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Belington.
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.