In 2025, fire departments serving Gloucester Point responded to 13 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $65K 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 69% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
53 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $296K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 5 | — | |
| 2022 | 11 | — | |
| 2023 | 10 | -9.1% | |
| 2024 | 14 | +40.0% | |
| 2025 | 13 | -7.1% |
* Well below Gloucester Point'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 4 building fires Gloucester Point departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 20 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 | 11 | 55.0% | |
| 2 | Other | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 3 | Structural area, other | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Switchgear area, transformer vault | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 8 | Outside area, other | 1 | 5.0% |
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 Gloucester Point mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 12 | 60.0% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 8 | Conducted heat from another fire | 1 | 5.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Gloucester Point departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $65,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $60,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Gloucester Point sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 11,348 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Natural | 6,574 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 535 | 47.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 478 | 33.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 372 | 15.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 310 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 255 | 37.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 221 | 5.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 213 | 5.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 208 | 4.9 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 198 | 42.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 162 | 27.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 154 | 25.1 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 Gloucester Point. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.