In 2025, fire departments serving Hale responded to 33 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 85% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
99 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $100K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 8 | — | |
| 2022 | 12 | — | |
| 2023* | 8 | — | |
| 2024 | 38 | — | |
| 2025 | 33 | -13.2% |
* Well below Hale'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 Hale departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 7 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 | 3 | 42.9% | |
| 2 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 14.3% |
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 Hale mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 6 | 85.7% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 14.3% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hale sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 6,843 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,071 | 8.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 902 | 28.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 380 | 7.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 350 | 25.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 300 | 23.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 300 | 7.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 292 | 39.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 263 | 12.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 249 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 240 | 41.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 237 | 24.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 220 | 42.8 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 Missouri cities with population within ±25% of Hale. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Hale.
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.