In 2025, fire departments serving Ceredo responded to 14 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Outside rubbish fire, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 57% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
69 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $652K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 22 | — | |
| 2022 | 15 | -31.8% | |
| 2023 | 12 | -20.0% | |
| 2024* | 6 | — | |
| 2025 | 14 | — |
* Well below Ceredo'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 Ceredo departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 23 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 | 11 | 47.8% | |
| 2 | Other | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 5 | Storage area, other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Shipping/receiving area; loading area, dock or bay | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 10 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 4.3% |
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 Ceredo mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 8 | 34.8% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 7 | 30.4% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 4.3% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Ceredo sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 44,444 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,328 | 45.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,082 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,865 | 40.1 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,250 | 43.3 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,200 | 37.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,090 | 35.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,000 | 30.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,934 | 32.1 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,880 | 48.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,769 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,739 | 35.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,678 | 35.6 mi |
Top 4 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 Ceredo. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Ceredo.
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.