In 2025, fire departments serving Herscher responded to 23 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $3K 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 83% of all calls.
May peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
120 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $177K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 16 | — | |
| 2022* | 14 | — | |
| 2023 | 37 | — | |
| 2024 | 30 | -18.9% | |
| 2025 | 23 | -23.3% |
* Well below Herscher'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 2 building fires Herscher departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 10 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 | 5 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 3 | Structural area, other | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Roof surface: exterior | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 6 | Railroad right of way: on or near | 1 | 10.0% |
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 Herscher mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 5 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Candle | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 10.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Herscher departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $3,000 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Herscher sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,865 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Natural | 600 | 21.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 232 | 22.1 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 15.1 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 14.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 75 | 29.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 70 | 15.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 67 | 22.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 27.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 21.4 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 21.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 42.3 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 Illinois cities with population within ±25% of Herscher. 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.