In 2025, fire departments serving Fairmont responded to 319 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $225K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 63% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,858 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $5.4M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 389 | — | |
| 2022 | 384 | -1.3% | |
| 2023 | 394 | +2.6% | |
| 2024 | 372 | -5.6% | |
| 2025 | 319 | -14.2% |
For the 59 building fires Fairmont departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 242 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 | 54 | 22.3% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 36 | 14.9% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 22 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 15 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 9 | 3.7% | |
| 6 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 9 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 8 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Wall assembly | 6 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 5 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 5 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 73 | 30.2% |
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 Fairmont mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 117 | 48.3% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 23 | 9.5% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 21 | 8.7% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 18 | 7.4% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 7 | 2.9% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 7 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 6 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 5 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 5 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 5 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 28 | 11.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Fairmont departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 76% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $225,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $225,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $225,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Fairmont sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
15 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 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 5 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 4 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,389 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Smoking | 394 | 29.9 mi | |
| 2009 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 150 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 47.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 147 | 40.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 125 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 121 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 120 | 38.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 117 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Smoking | 102 | 22.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 100 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Equipment and vehicle use | 85 | 43.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 76 | 20.2 mi |
Top 6 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 Fairmont. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
4 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Fairmont.
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.