In 2025, fire departments serving Pilot Grove responded to 12 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $350K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Trash or rubbish fire, contained lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 58% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
69 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $941K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 7 | — | |
| 2022 | 15 | — | |
| 2023 | 24 | +60.0% | |
| 2024 | 11 | -54.2% | |
| 2025 | 12 | +9.1% |
* Well below Pilot Grove'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 0 building fires Pilot Grove departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 21 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 | 14 | 66.7% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 3 | Storage area, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 4 | Closet | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 5 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 4.8% |
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 Pilot Grove mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 19 | 90.5% | |
| 2 | Match | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 3 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 4.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Pilot Grove departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $350,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Pilot Grove sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 10,550 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,071 | 47.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 759 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 745 | 35.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 726 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 609 | 44.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 563 | 44.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 537 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 47.8 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 405 | 47.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 370 | 48.6 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 365 | 46.4 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Missouri cities with population within ±25% of Pilot Grove. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Pilot Grove.
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.