In 2025, fire departments serving Elkins responded to 99 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $2.4M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 71% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
654 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $10.8M cumulative property loss. 4 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 134 | — | |
| 2022 | 154 | +14.9% | |
| 2023 | 116 | -24.7% | |
| 2024 | 151 | +30.2% | |
| 2025 | 99 | -34.4% |
For the 25 building fires Elkins departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 159 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 20 | 12.6% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 15 | 9.4% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 14 | 8.8% | |
| 4 | Wall surface: exterior | 13 | 8.2% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 9 | 5.7% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 9 | 5.7% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 7 | 4.4% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 7 | 4.4% | |
| 9 | Wildland, woods | 6 | 3.8% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 4 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 55 | 34.6% |
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 Elkins mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 52 | 32.7% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 17 | 10.7% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 14 | 8.8% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 12 | 7.5% | |
| 5 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 10 | 6.3% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 9 | 5.7% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 9 | 5.7% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 7 | 4.4% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 5 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 5 | 3.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 19 | 11.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Elkins departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $125,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $6,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Elkins sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
7 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 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 13,573 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Natural | 2,743 | 44.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,800 | 33.1 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,611 | 30.3 mi | |
| 2019 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1,289 | 30.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,000 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 914 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 644 | 49.9 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 546 | 43.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 428 | 33.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 330 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 293 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Recreation and ceremony | 197 | 31.3 mi |
Top 3 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six West Virginia cities with population within ±25% of Elkins. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Elkins.
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.