In 2025, fire departments serving Cherry Valley responded to 21 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K 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 86% of all calls.
Nov peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
74 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $801K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 8 | — | |
| 2022 | 11 | — | |
| 2023 | 15 | +36.4% | |
| 2024 | 19 | +26.7% | |
| 2025 | 21 | +10.5% |
* Well below Cherry Valley'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 Cherry Valley departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 10 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 4 | 40.0% | |
| 2 | Processing/manufacturing area, workroom | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 3 | Storage area, other | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Structural area, other | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 1 | 10.0% |
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 Cherry Valley mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 5 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 10.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Cherry Valley departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Cherry Valley sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,189 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,100 | 40.3 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 617 | 46.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 580 | 39.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 26.4 mi | |
| 2004 | Smoking | 169 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 100 | 18.9 mi | |
| 2004 | Recreation and ceremony | 100 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 80 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 80 | 39.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Recreation and ceremony | 75 | 28.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 70 | 18.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 65 | 49.7 mi |
Top 5 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 Cherry Valley. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Cherry Valley.
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.