In 2025, fire departments serving Berea responded to 254 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K 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 52% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
512 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $1.1M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 42 | — | |
| 2022 | 101 | — | |
| 2023 | 81 | -19.8% | |
| 2024* | 34 | — | |
| 2025 | 254 | — |
* Well below Berea'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 37 building fires Berea departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 265 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 | 136 | 51.3% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 29 | 10.9% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 19 | 7.2% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 16 | 6.0% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 13 | 4.9% | |
| 6 | Other | 8 | 3.0% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 7 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 4 | 1.5% | |
| 9 | Structural area, other | 3 | 1.1% | |
| 10 | Function area, other | 2 | 0.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 28 | 10.6% |
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 Berea mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 213 | 80.4% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 8 | 3.0% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 5 | 1.9% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 4 | 1.5% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 1.5% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 4 | 1.5% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 4 | 1.5% | |
| 8 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 4 | 1.5% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 1.1% | |
| 10 | Arcing | 3 | 1.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 13 | 4.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Berea departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 86% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $25,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Berea sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 40,801 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 3,500 | 39.3 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,406 | 39.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,000 | 38.4 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,537 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,500 | 44.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 2,200 | 49.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,100 | 15.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,000 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,000 | 48.0 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,910 | 41.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,640 | 37.4 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 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 Kentucky cities with population within ±25% of Berea. 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.