In 2025, fire departments serving Prince George responded to 115 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $400K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Aircraft standby lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 42% of all calls.
Feb peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
565 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $1.0M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 219 | — | |
| 2022 | 125 | -42.9% | |
| 2023* | 1 | — | |
| 2024 | 105 | — | |
| 2025 | 115 | +9.5% |
* Well below Prince George'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 Prince George departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 112 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 27 | 24.1% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 27 | 24.1% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 6 | 5.4% | |
| 4 | Vehicle area, other | 5 | 4.5% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 5 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 5 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Other | 4 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 4 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Exterior, exposed surface | 3 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 3 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 23 | 20.5% |
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 Prince George mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 51 | 45.5% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 17 | 15.2% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 9 | 8.0% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 8 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 6 | 5.4% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 5 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Heat, spark from friction | 3 | 2.7% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 1.8% | |
| 9 | Chemical, natural heat source, other | 2 | 1.8% | |
| 10 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 2 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 7 | 6.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Prince George departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 98% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $40,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $20,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $18,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Prince George sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 10,053 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,850 | 20.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,250 | 34.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 865 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 545 | 29.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 478 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 372 | 35.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 310 | 19.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 302 | 45.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 273 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 255 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Equipment and vehicle use | 223 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 221 | 47.5 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Virginia cities with population within ±25% of Prince George. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Prince George.
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.