In 2025, fire departments serving Boyce responded to 24 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 75% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
94 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $671K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 10 | — | |
| 2022* | 7 | — | |
| 2023 | 31 | — | |
| 2024 | 22 | -29.0% | |
| 2025 | 24 | +9.1% |
* Well below Boyce'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 9 building fires Boyce departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 16 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 | 6 | 37.5% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 18.8% | |
| 3 | Other | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 4 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Storage area, other | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 9 | Outside area, other | 1 | 6.2% |
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 Boyce mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 10 | 62.5% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 3 | 18.8% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 4 | Candle | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 6.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Boyce departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $7,500 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $3,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $1,500 | Fuel burner/boiler malfunction, fire confined | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Boyce sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 47,065 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Recreation and ceremony | 16,021 | 35.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 6,131 | 40.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,200 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 2,138 | 31.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Other causes | 1,989 | 21.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,935 | 39.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,579 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 1,200 | 20.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,113 | 36.8 mi | |
| 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,070 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,000 | 42.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 850 | 45.0 mi |
Top 7 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Virginia cities with population within ±25% of Boyce. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Boyce.
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.