In 2025, fire departments serving Carbondale responded to 390 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K 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 53% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,186 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $3.9M cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 413 | — | |
| 2022 | 474 | +14.8% | |
| 2023 | 472 | -0.4% | |
| 2024 | 437 | -7.4% | |
| 2025 | 390 | -10.8% |
For the 56 building fires Carbondale departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 775 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 114 | 14.7% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 99 | 12.8% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 78 | 10.1% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 67 | 8.6% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 66 | 8.5% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 48 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 36 | 4.6% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 27 | 3.5% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 21 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 20 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 199 | 25.7% |
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 Carbondale mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 350 | 45.2% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 90 | 11.6% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 54 | 7.0% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 54 | 7.0% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 49 | 6.3% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 30 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 22 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 17 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Fireworks | 16 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 16 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 77 | 9.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Carbondale departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 66% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $35,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $35,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $25,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Carbondale sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
26 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 8 | |
| 30-39 | 8 | |
| 40-49 | 6 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,531 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,000 | 39.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 409 | 13.9 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 245 | 27.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 225 | 22.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 30.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 177 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 176 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 47.3 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 160 | 39.5 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 160 | 20.0 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 150 | 21.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 129 | 39.7 mi |
Top 9 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Illinois cities with population within ±25% of Carbondale. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Carbondale.
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.