In 2025, fire departments serving Quincy responded to 544 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $3.5M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 49% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,036 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $21.2M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 662 | — | |
| 2022 | 594 | -10.3% | |
| 2023 | 627 | +5.6% | |
| 2024 | 609 | -2.9% | |
| 2025 | 544 | -10.7% |
For the 51 building fires Quincy departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 613 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 | 56 | 9.1% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 55 | 9.0% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 50 | 8.2% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 42 | 6.9% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 39 | 6.4% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 36 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 34 | 5.5% | |
| 8 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 26 | 4.2% | |
| 9 | Wildland, woods | 22 | 3.6% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 21 | 3.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 232 | 37.8% |
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 Quincy mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 258 | 42.1% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 60 | 9.8% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 48 | 7.8% | |
| 4 | Cigarette | 29 | 4.7% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 28 | 4.6% | |
| 6 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 23 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 22 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Radiated heat from another fire | 20 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 16 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 13 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 96 | 15.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Quincy departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 87% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $3,473,100 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $2,444,440 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $685,300 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $482,200 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $428,300 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $234,318 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $210,400 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $166,565 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Quincy sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
49 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 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 5 | |
| 30-39 | 10 | |
| 40-49 | 12 | |
| 50-59 | 14 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,706 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Debris and open burning | 1,050 | 46.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 835 | 24.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 280 | 20.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 238 | 6.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 210 | 18.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 24.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 33.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 24.2 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 140 | 28.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 140 | 43.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 120 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 107 | 39.8 mi |
Top 7 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 Quincy. 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.