In 2025, fire departments serving Columbia responded to 1,043 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $600K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 39% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,265 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $18.9M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 486 | — | |
| 2022 | 407 | -16.3% | |
| 2023* | 218 | — | |
| 2024 | 1,111 | — | |
| 2025 | 1,043 | -6.1% |
* Well below Columbia'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 67 building fires Columbia departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 710 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 | 150 | 21.1% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 89 | 12.5% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 76 | 10.7% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 55 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 49 | 6.9% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 44 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 27 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 20 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 17 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 17 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 166 | 23.4% |
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 Columbia mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 371 | 52.3% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 41 | 5.8% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 41 | 5.8% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 38 | 5.4% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 34 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 30 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 21 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 20 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 15 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 14 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 85 | 12.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Columbia departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 63% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $600,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $450,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $172,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Columbia sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
12 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 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,872 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Natural | 759 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 745 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 726 | 43.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 685 | 46.5 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 405 | 47.0 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 255 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 235 | 26.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 158 | 42.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Equipment and vehicle use | 150 | 17.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 149 | 44.2 mi | |
| 1992 | Debris and open burning | 120 | 8.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 46.3 mi |
Top 7 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Missouri cities with population within ±25% of Columbia. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Columbia.
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.