In 2025, fire departments serving Pittsburg responded to 15 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 93% of all calls.
Mar peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
74 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $155K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 5 | — | |
| 2022 | 20 | — | |
| 2023 | 18 | -10.0% | |
| 2024 | 16 | -11.1% | |
| 2025 | 15 | -6.2% |
* Well below Pittsburg'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 Pittsburg departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 20 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 | Outside area, other | 4 | 20.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 3 | 15.0% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Other | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Corridor, mall | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Entrance way, lobby | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 8 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 9 | Storage area, other | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 4 | 20.0% |
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 Pittsburg mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 6 | 30.0% | |
| 2 | Match | 3 | 15.0% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Multiple heat sources including multiple ignitions | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 9 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 10 | Conducted heat from another fire | 1 | 5.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Pittsburg sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,561 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,000 | 18.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 409 | 34.1 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 245 | 39.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 225 | 27.5 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 29.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 177 | 29.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 176 | 28.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 160 | 18.9 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 160 | 27.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 150 | 28.4 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 Pittsburg. 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.