In 2025, fire departments serving Hollister responded to 58 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $385K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Authorized controlled burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 59% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
60 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $553K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023* | 1 | — | |
| 2024* | 1 | — | |
| 2025 | 58 | — |
* Well below Hollister'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 Hollister 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 5 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Wildland, woods | 5 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 3 | 15.0% | |
| 4 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 8 | Outside area, other | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 10 | Undetermined | 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 Hollister mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 6 | 30.0% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 15.0% | |
| 3 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 3 | 15.0% | |
| 4 | Match | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 9 | Lightning | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 10 | Conducted heat from another fire | 1 | 5.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Hollister departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $385,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $25,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $1,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hollister sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 28,883 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,471 | 24.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,121 | 23.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,101 | 21.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 2,008 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,625 | 23.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Debris and open burning | 1,470 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,340 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,212 | 27.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,178 | 22.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,063 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,034 | 21.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,016 | 17.9 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 Missouri cities with population within ±25% of Hollister. 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.