In 2025, fire departments serving Pleasant Hope responded to 30 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 80% of all calls.
Mar peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
177 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $317K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 21 | — | |
| 2022 | 65 | — | |
| 2023 | 31 | -52.3% | |
| 2024 | 30 | -3.2% | |
| 2025 | 30 | +0.0% |
* Well below Pleasant Hope'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 6 building fires Pleasant Hope departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 83 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 17 | 20.5% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 13 | 15.7% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 8 | 9.6% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 7 | 8.4% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 7 | 8.4% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 6 | 7.2% | |
| 7 | Other | 5 | 6.0% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 4 | 4.8% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 3 | 3.6% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 11 | 13.3% |
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 Pleasant Hope mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 41 | 49.4% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 9 | 10.8% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 7 | 8.4% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 4 | 4.8% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 3 | 3.6% | |
| 6 | Match | 3 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 3 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Arcing | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 7 | 8.4% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Pleasant Hope sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 28,750 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,500 | 34.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,855 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,160 | 33.4 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,121 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,803 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,732 | 23.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,212 | 41.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,027 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,016 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,005 | 27.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 943 | 31.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 790 | 26.0 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 Missouri cities with population within ±25% of Pleasant Hope. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Pleasant Hope.
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.