In 2025, fire departments serving Martinsville responded to 293 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 52% of all calls.
Oct peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,442 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $4.5M cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 273 | — | |
| 2022 | 333 | +22.0% | |
| 2023 | 271 | -18.6% | |
| 2024 | 272 | +0.4% | |
| 2025 | 293 | +7.7% |
For the 47 building fires Martinsville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 442 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 | 138 | 31.2% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 44 | 10.0% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 31 | 7.0% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 27 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 27 | 6.1% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 26 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 25 | 5.7% | |
| 8 | Other | 19 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 10 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 6 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 89 | 20.1% |
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 Martinsville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 295 | 66.7% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 27 | 6.1% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 21 | 4.8% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 17 | 3.8% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 17 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 14 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 9 | 2.0% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 8 | 1.8% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 5 | 1.1% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 4 | 0.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 25 | 5.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Martinsville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 73% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $90,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $46,050 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Martinsville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
7 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 16,780 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,990 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 3,696 | 19.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,349 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,146 | 35.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,036 | 31.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 850 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 675 | 41.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Natural | 400 | 28.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 380 | 27.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 363 | 34.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 350 | 13.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Natural | 300 | 38.9 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Virginia cities with population within ±25% of Martinsville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Martinsville.
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.