In 2025, fire departments serving Bernie responded to 33 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $40K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 79% of all calls.
Mar peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
107 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $44K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 5 | — | |
| 2022 | 18 | — | |
| 2023 | 24 | +33.3% | |
| 2024 | 27 | +12.5% | |
| 2025 | 33 | +22.2% |
* Well below Bernie'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 3 building fires Bernie departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 85 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 | 19 | 22.4% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 19 | 22.4% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 15 | 17.6% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 7 | 8.2% | |
| 5 | Railroad right of way: on or near | 6 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 4 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Other | 1 | 1.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 8 | 9.4% |
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 Bernie mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 41 | 48.2% | |
| 2 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 13 | 15.3% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 10 | 11.8% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 6 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 5 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 1.2% | |
| 9 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 1.2% | |
| 10 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 1.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 2 | 2.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bernie departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $40,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $4,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bernie sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,295 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 569 | 32.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 429 | 41.5 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 334 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 316 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 285 | 36.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 285 | 41.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 276 | 33.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 273 | 46.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 244 | 43.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 185 | 33.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 170 | 22.0 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 | 63822 | 107 |
Six Missouri cities with population within ±25% of Bernie. 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.