In 2025, fire departments serving Chaffee responded to 22 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $60K 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 68% of all calls.
May peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
87 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $188K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 11 | — | |
| 2022* | 10 | — | |
| 2023 | 26 | — | |
| 2024 | 18 | -30.8% | |
| 2025 | 22 | +22.2% |
* Well below Chaffee'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 8 building fires Chaffee departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 24 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 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Other | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 3 | Entrance way, lobby | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 6 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Storage area, other | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 9 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 10 | Structural area, other | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 5 | 20.8% |
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 Chaffee mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 14 | 58.3% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 3 | 12.5% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Match | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 9 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 4.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Chaffee departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Chaffee sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,413 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 569 | 17.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 495 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 429 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 409 | 32.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 276 | 39.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 273 | 35.2 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 245 | 22.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 244 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 220 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 207 | 50.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 185 | 48.9 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 | 63740 | 87 |
Six Missouri cities with population within ±25% of Chaffee. 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.