In 2025, fire departments serving Licking responded to 51 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
240 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $706K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 47 | — | |
| 2022 | 53 | +12.8% | |
| 2023 | 45 | -15.1% | |
| 2024 | 44 | -2.2% | |
| 2025 | 51 | +15.9% |
For the 2 building fires Licking departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 116 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 | 50 | 43.1% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 42 | 36.2% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 4 | 3.4% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 4 | 3.4% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 2.6% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 7 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Other | 1 | 0.9% | |
| 10 | Entrance way, lobby | 1 | 0.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 5 | 4.3% |
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 Licking mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 85 | 73.3% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 15 | 12.9% | |
| 3 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 6 | 5.2% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 5 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 0.9% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 0.9% | |
| 8 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 0.9% | |
| 9 | Explosive, fireworks, other | 1 | 0.9% | |
| 10 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 1 | 0.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1 | 0.9% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Licking sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 26,970 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,761 | 28.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,146 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,460 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,365 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,249 | 20.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,212 | 21.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 1,049 | 18.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,027 | 37.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 971 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 956 | 27.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 911 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 876 | 21.2 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 | 65542 | 240 |
Six Missouri cities with population within ±25% of Licking. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Licking.
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.