In 2025, fire departments serving Butler responded to 15 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500 building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 73% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
81 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $91K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 9 | — | |
| 2022 | 18 | — | |
| 2023 | 23 | +27.8% | |
| 2024 | 16 | -30.4% | |
| 2025 | 15 | -6.2% |
* Well below Butler'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 Butler 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 | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Function area, other | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Structural area, other | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 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 Butler mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 7 | 43.8% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Lightning | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Multiple heat sources including multiple ignitions | 1 | 6.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Butler departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Butler sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 14,766 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,000 | 28.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,332 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 823 | 34.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 801 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 46.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 28.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 400 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 25.4 mi | |
| 2019 | Natural | 365 | 21.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 34.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 345 | 6.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 320 | 12.0 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 Alabama cities with population within ±25% of Butler. 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.