In 2025, fire departments serving Eldon responded to 476 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $205K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Authorized controlled burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 87% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,873 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $384K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 149 | — | |
| 2022 | 375 | — | |
| 2023 | 479 | +27.7% | |
| 2024 | 394 | -17.7% | |
| 2025 | 476 | +20.8% |
* Well below Eldon'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 28 building fires Eldon departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 113 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 | 32 | 28.3% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 14 | 12.4% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 13 | 11.5% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 9 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 7 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 6 | 5.3% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 5 | 4.4% | |
| 8 | Other | 4 | 3.5% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 3 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Function area, other | 2 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 18 | 15.9% |
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 Eldon mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 65 | 57.5% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 6 | 5.3% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 5 | 4.4% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 5 | 4.4% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 5 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 4 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 3 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 11 | 9.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Eldon departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $205,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $30,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $1,500 | Chimney or flue fire, confined to chimney or flue | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $500 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Eldon sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 25,969 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,500 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,855 | 37.6 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 2,245 | 16.1 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,160 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,803 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,212 | 48.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 943 | 40.5 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 789 | 31.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 759 | 8.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 745 | 11.9 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 726 | 8.6 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 688 | 39.3 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 Missouri cities with population within ±25% of Eldon. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Eldon.
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.