In 2025, fire departments serving Belleville responded to 14 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 86% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
96 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $217K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 21 | — | |
| 2022 | 20 | -4.8% | |
| 2023* | 11 | — | |
| 2024 | 30 | — | |
| 2025 | 14 | -53.3% |
* Well below Belleville'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 Belleville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 12 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 | 2 | 16.7% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 6 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 7 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 9 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 10 | Undetermined | 1 | 8.3% |
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 Belleville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 4 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 3 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 6 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 7 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 8.3% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Belleville sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 8,451 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,400 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,100 | 14.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,100 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 617 | 14.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 580 | 14.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 27.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 21.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 290 | 36.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 254 | 33.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 252 | 40.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 180 | 45.8 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 | 53508 | 96 |
Six Wisconsin cities with population within ±25% of Belleville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Belleville.
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.