In 2025, fire departments serving Elliston responded to 24 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Electrical wiring/equipment problem, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 79% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
55 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $86K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 4 | — | |
| 2022 | 7 | — | |
| 2023* | 6 | — | |
| 2024 | 14 | — | |
| 2025 | 24 | +71.4% |
* Well below Elliston'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 1 building fires Elliston 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | 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 Elliston mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 3 | 75.0% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 1 | 25.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Elliston departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,000 | Chimney or flue fire, confined to chimney or flue | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Elliston sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 53,359 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 11,381 | 37.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Fireworks | 7,351 | 29.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,990 | 16.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 3,696 | 34.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 2,935 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2008 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2,738 | 16.0 mi | |
| 1995 | Smoking | 2,151 | 12.5 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,678 | 29.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,676 | 42.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,550 | 28.5 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,354 | 19.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,349 | 10.5 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 Virginia cities with population within ±25% of Elliston. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Elliston.
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.