In 2025, fire departments serving Oil City responded to 53 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Oil City's departments reported 53 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 138 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 66% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
689 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $684K cumulative property loss. 5 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 169 | — | |
| 2022 | 188 | +11.2% | |
| 2023 | 186 | -1.1% | |
| 2024 | 93 | -50.0% | |
| 2025* | 53 | — |
* Well below Oil City'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 20 building fires Oil City departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 233 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 | Outside area, other | 53 | 22.7% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 31 | 13.3% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 17 | 7.3% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 13 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Other | 12 | 5.2% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 11 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 11 | 4.7% | |
| 8 | Wall surface: exterior | 10 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 6 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 6 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 63 | 27.0% |
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 Oil City mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 44 | 18.9% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 31 | 13.3% | |
| 3 | Cigarette lighter | 27 | 11.6% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 19 | 8.2% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 16 | 6.9% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 14 | 6.0% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 13 | 5.6% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 11 | 4.7% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 8 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 8 | 3.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 42 | 18.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Oil City departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $2,800 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $2,400 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $1,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $1,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Oil City sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
21 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 4 | |
| 70-79 | 6 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,636 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 780 | 25.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 342 | 11.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 260 | 23.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 152 | 31.8 mi | |
| 2013 | Debris and open burning | 106 | 47.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 85 | 27.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 76 | 27.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 65 | 25.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | 64 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 59 | 25.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 57 | 36.7 mi | |
| 1992 | Equipment and vehicle use | 54 | 39.9 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 | 16301 | 689 |
Six Pennsylvania cities with population within ±25% of Oil City. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Oil City.
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.