In 2025, fire departments serving Niangua responded to 10 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Passenger vehicle fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 70% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
22 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $50K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 1 | — | |
| 2022 | 3 | — | |
| 2023 | 3 | +0.0% | |
| 2024 | 5 | +66.7% | |
| 2025 | 10 | +100.0% |
* Well below Niangua'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 1 building fires Niangua departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 13 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 4 | 30.8% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 3 | 23.1% | |
| 3 | Wildland, woods | 3 | 23.1% | |
| 4 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 7.7% |
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 Niangua mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 4 | 30.8% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 23.1% | |
| 3 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Lightning | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Radiated heat from another fire | 1 | 7.7% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Niangua sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 32,317 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,500 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,855 | 34.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,471 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,160 | 27.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,121 | 36.6 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,732 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,625 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,212 | 32.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,212 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,178 | 49.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 1,049 | 47.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,027 | 17.3 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 | 65713 | 22 |
Six Missouri cities with population within ±25% of Niangua. 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.