In 2025, fire departments serving Dexter responded to 179 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 57% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
418 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $100K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 78 | — | |
| 2022 | 86 | +10.3% | |
| 2023 | 55 | -36.0% | |
| 2024* | 20 | — | |
| 2025 | 179 | — |
* Well below Dexter'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 26 building fires Dexter departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 247 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 | 80 | 32.4% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 37 | 15.0% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 33 | 13.4% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 15 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 9 | 3.6% | |
| 6 | Wall surface: exterior | 9 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 5 | 2.0% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 5 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 4 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Wall assembly | 4 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 46 | 18.6% |
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 Dexter mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 150 | 60.7% | |
| 2 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 21 | 8.5% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 13 | 5.3% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 10 | 4.0% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 9 | 3.6% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 9 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 6 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Fireworks | 5 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 5 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 4 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 15 | 6.1% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Dexter sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,838 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 569 | 27.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 429 | 36.3 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 388 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 334 | 36.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 316 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 285 | 36.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 285 | 38.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 276 | 28.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 273 | 38.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 244 | 38.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 220 | 47.7 mi |
Top 2 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 Dexter. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Dexter.
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.