In 2025, fire departments serving Mathews responded to 35 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Aircraft standby lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 60% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
73 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $95K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022 | 14 | — | |
| 2023* | 5 | — | |
| 2024 | 19 | — | |
| 2025 | 35 | +84.2% |
* Well below Mathews'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 2 building fires Mathews departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 14 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 | 21.4% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 2 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Corridor, mall | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Dining room, cafeteria bar area, beverage service | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 7 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 8 | Conduit, pipe, utility, or ventilation shaft | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 9 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 10 | Switchgear area, transformer vault | 1 | 7.1% |
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 Mathews mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arcing | 5 | 35.7% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 2 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 7 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 8 | Conducted heat from another fire | 1 | 7.1% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Mathews sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,660 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,348 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 478 | 29.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 372 | 20.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 310 | 37.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 255 | 33.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 231 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 221 | 11.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 213 | 12.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 208 | 11.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 162 | 41.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 154 | 39.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 47.3 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 | 23109 | 73 |
Six Virginia cities with population within ±25% of Mathews. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Mathews.
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.