In 2025, fire departments serving Hillsville responded to 148 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Aircraft standby lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 53% of all calls.
Oct peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
396 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $1.6M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 33 | — | |
| 2022 | 106 | — | |
| 2023 | 61 | -42.5% | |
| 2024 | 48 | -21.3% | |
| 2025 | 148 | +208.3% |
* Well below Hillsville'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 8 building fires Hillsville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 92 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 | 57 | 62.0% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 9 | 9.8% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 5 | 5.4% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 3.3% | |
| 5 | Other | 2 | 2.2% | |
| 6 | Structural area, other | 2 | 2.2% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 2.2% | |
| 8 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 1.1% | |
| 10 | Storage area, other | 1 | 1.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 8 | 8.7% |
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 Hillsville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 69 | 75.0% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 5 | 5.4% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 5 | 5.4% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 4 | 4.3% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 3 | 3.3% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 1.1% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 1.1% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 1.1% | |
| 9 | Lightning | 1 | 1.1% | |
| 10 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 1.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1 | 1.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Hillsville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 98% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $75,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $10,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $5,000 | Fire in portable building, fixed location | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hillsville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 13,941 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Natural | 3,696 | 29.6 mi | |
| 2013 | Smoking | 1,509 | 23.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 850 | 40.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 737 | 16.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 730 | 17.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 675 | 32.3 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 500 | 43.0 mi | |
| 1998 | Equipment and vehicle use | 500 | 42.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 484 | 23.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 457 | 12.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 363 | 34.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 310 | 34.9 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 Virginia cities with population within ±25% of Hillsville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Hillsville.
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.