In 2025, fire departments serving Maurertown responded to 13 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $400K 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 85% of all calls.
May peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
41 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $415K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 4 | — | |
| 2022 | 7 | — | |
| 2023* | 4 | — | |
| 2024 | 13 | — | |
| 2025 | 13 | +0.0% |
* Well below Maurertown'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 4 building fires Maurertown departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 7 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 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 2 | 28.6% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 2 | 28.6% | |
| 3 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 14.3% |
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 Maurertown mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 3 | 42.9% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 2 | 28.6% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 1 | 14.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Maurertown departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $10 | Grass fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Maurertown sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 68,770 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Recreation and ceremony | 16,021 | 23.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 10,326 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 6,131 | 28.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,200 | 29.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,717 | 31.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 2,743 | 30.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2,564 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 2,138 | 16.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Other causes | 1,989 | 16.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,935 | 18.3 mi | |
| 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,800 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,611 | 45.3 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 | 22644 | 41 |
Six Virginia cities with population within ±25% of Maurertown. 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.