In 2025, fire departments serving Hurstbourne responded to 12 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 58% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
24 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $86K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022* | 1 | — | |
| 2023 | 7 | — | |
| 2024 | 4 | -42.9% | |
| 2025 | 12 | +200.0% |
* Well below Hurstbourne'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 0 building fires Hurstbourne departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 9 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 3 | Other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Entrance way, lobby | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 1 | 11.1% |
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 Hurstbourne mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 5 | 55.6% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 11.1% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hurstbourne sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,804 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 354 | 28.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 23.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Smoking | 201 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 182 | 47.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 157 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 144 | 25.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 117 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 97 | 24.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 95 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 95 | 28.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 94 | 45.8 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 40222 | 24 |
Six Kentucky cities with population within ±25% of Hurstbourne. 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.