In 2025, fire departments serving Charlottesville responded to 497 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 43% of all calls.
Feb peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,567 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $9.9M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 572 | — | |
| 2022 | 827 | +44.6% | |
| 2023 | 770 | -6.9% | |
| 2024 | 901 | +17.0% | |
| 2025 | 497 | -44.8% |
For the 28 building fires Charlottesville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 777 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 123 | 15.8% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 97 | 12.5% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 94 | 12.1% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 88 | 11.3% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 70 | 9.0% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 46 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 29 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 21 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 17 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 14 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 178 | 22.9% |
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 Charlottesville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 230 | 29.6% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 75 | 9.7% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 71 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 68 | 8.8% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 43 | 5.5% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 41 | 5.3% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 40 | 5.1% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 39 | 5.0% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 32 | 4.1% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 14 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 124 | 16.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Charlottesville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 69% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Accident, potential accident, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $49,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $44,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $41,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $20,900 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $19,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Charlottesville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
7 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 82,321 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Recreation and ceremony | 16,021 | 40.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 11,229 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 10,326 | 21.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 6,131 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,505 | 18.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,200 | 32.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,717 | 33.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2,564 | 43.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 2,206 | 17.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 2,138 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2,057 | 39.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,935 | 44.3 mi |
Top 8 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Virginia cities with population within ±25% of Charlottesville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Charlottesville.
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.