In 2025, fire departments serving Paintsville responded to 35 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 54% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
117 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $63K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 6 | — | |
| 2022 | 32 | — | |
| 2023* | 1 | — | |
| 2024 | 43 | — | |
| 2025 | 35 | -18.6% |
* Well below Paintsville'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 Paintsville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 50 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 | 10 | 20.0% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 7 | 14.0% | |
| 3 | Other | 4 | 8.0% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 4 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 6.0% | |
| 6 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 2 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - 5+ persons; including barrack/dormitory | 2 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 2 | 4.0% | |
| 9 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 2 | 4.0% | |
| 10 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 4.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 12 | 24.0% |
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 Paintsville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 21 | 42.0% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 6 | 12.0% | |
| 3 | Cigarette lighter | 5 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 3 | 6.0% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 3 | 6.0% | |
| 7 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 3 | 6.0% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 2 | 4.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Paintsville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 81,874 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 10,000 | 25.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 7,500 | 10.9 mi | |
| 1994 | Fireworks | 4,552 | 40.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,070 | 29.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,500 | 30.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 3,500 | 46.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,475 | 40.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,200 | 39.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,100 | 38.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,000 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,765 | 48.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 2,575 | 39.7 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 | 41240 | 117 |
Six Kentucky cities with population within ±25% of Paintsville. 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.