In 2025, fire departments serving Cedar Grove responded to 27 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $15K 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 85% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
133 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $282K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 12 | — | |
| 2022 | 20 | — | |
| 2023 | 46 | +130.0% | |
| 2024 | 28 | -39.1% | |
| 2025 | 27 | -3.6% |
* Well below Cedar Grove'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 7 building fires Cedar Grove departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 29 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 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 4 | 13.8% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 4 | 13.8% | |
| 3 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 3 | 10.3% | |
| 4 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 2 | 6.9% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 2 | 6.9% | |
| 6 | Storage area, other | 2 | 6.9% | |
| 7 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 2 | 6.9% | |
| 8 | Outside area, other | 2 | 6.9% | |
| 9 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 6.9% | |
| 10 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 5 | 17.2% |
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 Cedar Grove mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 19 | 65.5% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 2 | 6.9% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 6.9% | |
| 4 | Cigarette | 2 | 6.9% | |
| 5 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 2 | 6.9% | |
| 6 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Conducted heat from another fire | 1 | 3.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Cedar Grove departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $15,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,000 | Special outside fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Cedar Grove sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 61,228 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Fireworks | 4,637 | 8.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Fireworks | 3,706 | 17.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,484 | 27.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Fireworks | 3,358 | 19.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,328 | 19.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Fireworks | 3,186 | 39.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Fireworks | 3,171 | 21.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,082 | 25.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,859 | 37.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,533 | 45.1 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,250 | 28.7 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,233 | 43.0 mi |
Top 3 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six West Virginia cities with population within ±25% of Cedar Grove. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Cedar Grove.
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.