In 2025, fire departments serving Mineral responded to 130 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 55% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
454 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $961K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 15 | — | |
| 2022 | 84 | — | |
| 2023 | 86 | +2.4% | |
| 2024 | 139 | +61.6% | |
| 2025 | 130 | -6.5% |
* Well below Mineral'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 11 building fires Mineral departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 88 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 | 25 | 28.4% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 17 | 19.3% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 6 | 6.8% | |
| 4 | Vehicle area, other | 5 | 5.7% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 5 | 5.7% | |
| 6 | Other | 4 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 4 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 3 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 3 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 2 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 14 | 15.9% |
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 Mineral mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 44 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 9 | 10.2% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 7 | 8.0% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 4 | 4.5% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 3 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 3 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 2 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 2 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 7 | 8.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Mineral departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $50,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $25,000 | Water vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $2,500 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $1,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Mineral sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 58,199 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 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 10,326 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 6,131 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,505 | 15.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,200 | 49.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 2,206 | 47.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,579 | 43.1 mi | |
| 1998 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,431 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 1,150 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,113 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,014 | 45.0 mi | |
| 1997 | Smoking | 1,000 | 46.2 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 | 23117 | 454 |
Six Virginia cities with population within ±25% of Mineral. 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.