In 2025, fire departments serving Pilot Knob responded to 17 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 77% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
50 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022* | 5 | — | |
| 2023* | 3 | — | |
| 2024 | 25 | — | |
| 2025 | 17 | -32.0% |
* Well below Pilot Knob'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 2 building fires Pilot Knob departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 13 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 | 9 | 69.2% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 3 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 7.7% |
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 Knob mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 11 | 84.6% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 7.7% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Pilot Knob sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 26,267 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,761 | 39.3 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,422 | 31.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,146 | 19.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,595 | 30.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,227 | 40.9 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,026 | 35.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 971 | 22.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 810 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 38.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 750 | 38.2 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 740 | 45.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 730 | 25.3 mi |
Top 3 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 Knob. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Pilot Knob.
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.