In 2025, fire departments serving Petersburg responded to 42 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $40K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Petersburg's departments reported 42 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 75 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 69% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
377 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $1.7M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 70 | — | |
| 2022 | 112 | +60.0% | |
| 2023 | 55 | -50.9% | |
| 2024 | 98 | +78.2% | |
| 2025* | 42 | — |
* Well below Petersburg'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 10 building fires Petersburg departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 69 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 | 21 | 30.4% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 6 | 8.7% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 6 | 8.7% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 6 | 8.7% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 5 | 7.2% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 4 | 5.8% | |
| 7 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 2 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 2 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Wildland, woods | 2 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Other | 1 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 14 | 20.3% |
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 Petersburg mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 32 | 46.4% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 7 | 10.1% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 3 | 4.3% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 4.3% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 2 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Radiated heat from another fire | 2 | 2.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 10 | 14.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Petersburg departments in 2025. These 7 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $40,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $2,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $2,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $300 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Petersburg sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
5 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 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 35,334 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,200 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,717 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 2,743 | 10.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2,564 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 2,138 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,935 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,800 | 6.2 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,611 | 13.3 mi | |
| 2019 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1,289 | 14.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 1,200 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,113 | 48.6 mi | |
| 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,070 | 44.7 mi |
Top 7 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six West Virginia cities with population within ±25% of Petersburg. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Petersburg.
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.