In 2025, fire departments serving Hometown responded to 42 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $220K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 83% of all calls.
Nov peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
175 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $572K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 13 | — | |
| 2022 | 36 | — | |
| 2023 | 27 | -25.0% | |
| 2024 | 57 | +111.1% | |
| 2025 | 42 | -26.3% |
* Well below Hometown'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 7 building fires Hometown departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 15 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 20.0% | |
| 2 | Other | 2 | 13.3% | |
| 3 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 2 | 13.3% | |
| 4 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 2 | 13.3% | |
| 5 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 7 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 8 | Duct: hvac, cable, exhaust, heating, or AC | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 10 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 6.7% |
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 Hometown mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat source: other | 5 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 5 | 33.3% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Backfire from internal combustion engine | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 1 | 6.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Hometown departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $220,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $2,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hometown sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 6,291 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 750 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Natural | 600 | 38.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 46.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 396 | 24.7 mi | |
| 1993 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 341 | 24.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 291 | 24.1 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 274 | 25.6 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 253 | 24.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 244 | 24.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 232 | 34.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 216 | 24.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 204 | 23.8 mi |
Top 4 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 Hometown. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Hometown.
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.