In 2025, fire departments serving Point Pleasant responded to 25 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $30K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Point Pleasant's departments reported 25 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 46 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 84% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
228 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $1.0M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 39 | — | |
| 2022 | 43 | +10.3% | |
| 2023 | 68 | +58.1% | |
| 2024 | 53 | -22.1% | |
| 2025* | 25 | — |
* Well below Point Pleasant'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 Point Pleasant departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 58 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 | 22 | 37.9% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 8 | 13.8% | |
| 3 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 6 | 10.3% | |
| 4 | Wall surface: exterior | 5 | 8.6% | |
| 5 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 3 | 5.2% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Other | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 8 | Exterior stairway, ramp, or fire escape | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 8 | 13.8% |
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 Point Pleasant mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 39 | 67.2% | |
| 2 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 4 | 6.9% | |
| 3 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 4 | 6.9% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 3 | 5.2% | |
| 5 | Cigarette | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 8 | Incendiary device | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Candle | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Backfire from internal combustion engine | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1 | 1.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Point Pleasant departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $5,000 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Point Pleasant sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
7 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 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 10,783 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,624 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 754 | 48.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 746 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 550 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 476 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 450 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 448 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 435 | 46.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 433 | 49.2 mi | |
| 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 429 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Recreation and ceremony | 400 | 48.1 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 360 | 46.8 mi |
Top 5 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 Point Pleasant. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Point Pleasant.
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.