In 2025, fire departments serving Carrier Mills responded to 24 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 71% of all calls.
Nov peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
91 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $74K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 8 | — | |
| 2022 | 13 | — | |
| 2023 | 28 | +115.4% | |
| 2024 | 18 | -35.7% | |
| 2025 | 24 | +33.3% |
* Well below Carrier Mills'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 4 building fires Carrier Mills departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 39 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 | 11 | 28.2% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 10 | 25.6% | |
| 3 | Other | 7 | 17.9% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 4 | 10.3% | |
| 5 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 2 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 7 | Storage area, other | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Exterior, exposed surface | 1 | 2.6% |
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 Carrier Mills mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 15 | 38.5% | |
| 2 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 10 | 25.6% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 3 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 3 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 7 | Incendiary device | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 2.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Carrier Mills departments in 2025. These 7 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $400 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $250 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Carrier Mills sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,657 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 | 14.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 409 | 44.5 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 245 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 225 | 40.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 27.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 180 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 177 | 16.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 176 | 15.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 39.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 160 | 14.1 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 160 | 40.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 31.5 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 Illinois cities with population within ±25% of Carrier Mills. 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.