In 2025, fire departments serving Douglass Hills responded to 29 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $250K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 72% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
31 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $254K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023* | 0 | — | |
| 2024* | 2 | — | |
| 2025 | 29 | — |
* Well below Douglass Hills'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 Douglass Hills departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 4 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 | Other | 1 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Wall assembly | 1 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 25.0% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 1 | 25.0% |
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 Douglass Hills mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arcing | 2 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 1 | 25.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Douglass Hills departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $2,500 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Douglass Hills sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,844 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 354 | 27.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 25.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Smoking | 201 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 182 | 47.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 157 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 144 | 27.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 117 | 46.8 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 46.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 97 | 22.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 95 | 44.9 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 95 | 28.2 mi | |
| 2008 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 94 | 46.4 mi |
Top 4 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Kentucky cities with population within ±25% of Douglass Hills. 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.