In 2025, fire departments serving Bowen responded to 12 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Electrical wiring/equipment problem, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 50% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
32 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 5 | — | |
| 2022 | 4 | -20.0% | |
| 2023* | 2 | — | |
| 2024 | 9 | — | |
| 2025 | 12 | +33.3% |
* Well below Bowen'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 Bowen departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 7 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 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 2 | Structural area, other | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 1 | 14.3% |
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 Bowen mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 3 | 42.9% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 5 | Multiple heat sources including multiple ignitions | 1 | 14.3% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bowen sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,513 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 835 | 44.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 280 | 25.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 238 | 33.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 210 | 37.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 180 | 45.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 44.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 140 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 108 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 107 | 47.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 100 | 29.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 100 | 33.8 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 | 62316 | 32 |
Six Illinois cities with population within ±25% of Bowen. 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.