In 2025, fire departments serving Glade Spring responded to 55 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $5K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 62% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
212 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $665K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 15 | — | |
| 2022 | 52 | — | |
| 2023 | 46 | -11.5% | |
| 2024 | 44 | -4.3% | |
| 2025 | 55 | +25.0% |
* Well below Glade Spring'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 6 building fires Glade Spring departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 82 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 | 26 | 31.7% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 9 | 11.0% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 9 | 11.0% | |
| 4 | Other | 7 | 8.5% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 4 | 4.9% | |
| 6 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Storage area, other | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Equipment or service area, other | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 15 | 18.3% |
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 Glade Spring mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 39 | 47.6% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 8 | 9.8% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 6 | 7.3% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 6 | 7.3% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 5 | 6.1% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 4 | 4.9% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 1.2% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 1.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 8 | 9.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Glade Spring departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $500 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Glade Spring sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 38,574 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 5,832 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,850 | 35.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,050 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,000 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,727 | 43.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,538 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2013 | Smoking | 1,509 | 33.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,500 | 48.8 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,485 | 41.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,450 | 45.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,264 | 49.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,200 | 46.8 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 Glade Spring. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Glade Spring.
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.