In 2025, fire departments serving Mill Creek responded to 12 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $70K 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 92% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
91 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $186K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 29 | — | |
| 2022 | 22 | -24.1% | |
| 2023 | 19 | -13.6% | |
| 2024* | 9 | — | |
| 2025 | 12 | — |
* Well below Mill Creek'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 Mill Creek departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 19 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 | 11 | 57.9% | |
| 2 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 2 | 10.5% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 4 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Exterior, exposed surface | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 7 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 5.3% |
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 Mill Creek mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 16 | 84.2% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 3 | Model and amateur rockets | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 4 | Radiated heat from another fire | 1 | 5.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Mill Creek departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $70,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $500 | Chimney or flue fire, confined to chimney or flue | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Mill Creek sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 13,564 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,800 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,800 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,611 | 37.3 mi | |
| 2019 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1,289 | 37.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 914 | 49.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 894 | 41.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 644 | 49.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 550 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 428 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 416 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 395 | 41.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 390 | 49.2 mi |
Top 7 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six West Virginia cities with population within ±25% of Mill Creek. 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.