In 2025, fire departments serving Carlock responded to 18 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $15K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 61% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
37 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $200K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 1 | — | |
| 2022 | 11 | — | |
| 2023 | 7 | -36.4% | |
| 2024* | 0 | — | |
| 2025 | 18 | — |
* Well below Carlock'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 2 building fires Carlock departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 10 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 | 60.0% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 3 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 10.0% |
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 Carlock mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 6 | 60.0% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 10.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Carlock departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Cultivated grain or crop fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Carlock sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,626 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 375 | 41.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 38.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 110 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 80 | 33.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 75 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 28.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 60 | 41.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 51 | 26.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 20.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 36.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 18.9 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 45 | 29.0 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 | 61725 | 37 |
Six Illinois cities with population within ±25% of Carlock. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Carlock.
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.