In 2025, fire departments serving Oquawka responded to 27 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 70% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
97 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $294K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 28 | — | |
| 2022 | 26 | -7.1% | |
| 2023 | 14 | -46.2% | |
| 2024* | 2 | — | |
| 2025 | 27 | — |
* Well below Oquawka'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 3 building fires Oquawka departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 36 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 | 15 | 41.7% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 4 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 4 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Storage area, other | 2 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Structural area, other | 2 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Multiple areas | 2 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Dining room, cafeteria bar area, beverage service | 1 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Wall assembly | 1 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 3 | 8.3% |
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 Oquawka mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 18 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 6 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Multiple heat sources including multiple ignitions | 3 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Match | 2 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 1 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Explosive, fireworks, other | 1 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Lightning | 1 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Conducted heat from another fire | 1 | 2.8% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Oquawka sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 6,251 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,200 | 23.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 832 | 23.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 820 | 23.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 630 | 23.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 333 | 14.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 282 | 23.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 232 | 23.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 180 | 13.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 174 | 23.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 16.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 140 | 26.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 108 | 30.6 mi |
Top 4 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Illinois cities with population within ±25% of Oquawka. 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.