In 2025, fire departments serving Bland responded to 20 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 90% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
104 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 20 | — | |
| 2022* | 8 | — | |
| 2023 | 16 | — | |
| 2024 | 40 | +150.0% | |
| 2025 | 20 | -50.0% |
* Well below Bland'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 5 building fires Bland departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 18 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 7 | 38.9% | |
| 2 | Wildland, woods | 6 | 33.3% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 5.6% |
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 Bland mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 8 | 44.4% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 5 | 27.8% | |
| 3 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 3 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Fireworks | 1 | 5.6% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bland sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 15,973 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,249 | 41.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,212 | 44.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 1,049 | 46.7 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,026 | 37.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 35.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 759 | 42.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 755 | 39.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 750 | 46.0 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 740 | 32.9 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 726 | 42.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 685 | 25.3 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 592 | 48.1 mi |
Top 3 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Missouri cities with population within ±25% of Bland. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Bland.
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.