In 2025, fire departments serving Coal Valley responded to 37 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $13K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 49% of all calls.
Nov peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
124 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $358K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 39 | — | |
| 2022 | 20 | -48.7% | |
| 2023* | 8 | — | |
| 2024 | 20 | — | |
| 2025 | 37 | +85.0% |
* Well below Coal 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 2 building fires Coal Valley 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 | Undetermined | 7 | 30.4% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 4 | 17.4% | |
| 3 | Vehicle area, other | 3 | 13.0% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 3 | 13.0% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Structural area, other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 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 Coal Valley mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 14 | 60.9% | |
| 2 | Heat, spark from friction | 3 | 13.0% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Lightning | 1 | 4.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Coal Valley departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $13,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Coal Valley sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 8,868 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 1,500 | 14.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,200 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 832 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 820 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 640 | 15.1 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 630 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 47.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 333 | 40.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 282 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Recreation and ceremony | 265 | 39.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 232 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 195 | 15.6 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 Illinois cities with population within ±25% of Coal Valley. 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.