In 2025, fire departments serving Danville responded to 19 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $20K 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 69% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
53 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $390K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 10 | — | |
| 2022* | 2 | — | |
| 2023 | 10 | — | |
| 2024 | 12 | +20.0% | |
| 2025 | 19 | +58.3% |
* Well below Danville'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 0 building fires Danville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 20 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 | Outside area, other | 7 | 35.0% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 15.0% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Other | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Storage area, other | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Maintenance shop or area, paint shop or area | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 8 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 5.0% |
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 Danville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 4 | 20.0% | |
| 2 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 15.0% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 15.0% | |
| 4 | Cigarette lighter | 3 | 15.0% | |
| 5 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 6 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 9 | Arcing | 1 | 5.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Danville departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $2,500 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,000 | Fuel burner/boiler malfunction, fire confined | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10 | Grass fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Danville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 6,759 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,200 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 832 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 820 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 630 | 29.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 333 | 20.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 282 | 29.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 280 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 232 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 35.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 180 | 6.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 174 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Smoking | 150 | 31.5 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 | 52623 | 53 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Danville. 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.