In 2025, fire departments serving Marion responded to 63 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Marion's departments reported 63 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 123 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 47% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
613 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $3.3M cumulative property loss. 5 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 131 | — | |
| 2022 | 148 | +13.0% | |
| 2023 | 146 | -1.4% | |
| 2024 | 125 | -14.4% | |
| 2025* | 63 | — |
* Well below Marion'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 Marion departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 162 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 | 35 | 21.6% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 27 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 11 | 6.8% | |
| 4 | Other | 10 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 10 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 6 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Outside area, other | 5 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Wall assembly | 4 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 4 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 3 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 47 | 29.0% |
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 Marion mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 65 | 40.1% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 23 | 14.2% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 10 | 6.2% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 9 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 9 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 7 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 7 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 6 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 3 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 20 | 12.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Marion departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 99% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $30,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $15,000 | Fire in portable building, fixed location | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $12,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $12,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $8,700 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $1,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Marion sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
6 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 4 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 33,956 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 5,832 | 34.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,850 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,538 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,531 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2013 | Smoking | 1,509 | 19.5 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,485 | 38.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,450 | 47.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 1,151 | 43.1 mi | |
| 2001 | Fireworks | 1,098 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,094 | 32.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,019 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1,000 | 39.6 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 | 24354 | 613 |
Six Virginia cities with population within ±25% of Marion. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Marion.
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.