In 2025, fire departments serving Radford responded to 69 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $350K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Authorized controlled burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 40% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
301 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $2.7M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 20 | — | |
| 2022 | 74 | — | |
| 2023 | 48 | -35.1% | |
| 2024 | 90 | +87.5% | |
| 2025 | 69 | -23.3% |
* Well below Radford'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 5 building fires Radford departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 82 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 | 14 | 17.1% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 11 | 13.4% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 8 | 9.8% | |
| 4 | Other | 7 | 8.5% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 6 | 7.3% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 6 | 7.3% | |
| 7 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 4 | 4.9% | |
| 8 | Function area, other | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 18 | 22.0% |
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 Radford mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 39 | 47.6% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 9 | 11.0% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 5 | 6.1% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 4 | 4.9% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 4.9% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 1.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 9 | 11.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Radford departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 98% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $129,200 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $12,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $4,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $2,500 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Radford sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 49,381 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 11,381 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Fireworks | 7,351 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,990 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 3,696 | 33.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2,738 | 32.3 mi | |
| 1995 | Smoking | 2,151 | 28.3 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,678 | 43.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,550 | 47.8 mi | |
| 2013 | Smoking | 1,509 | 40.2 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,354 | 31.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,349 | 29.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,146 | 31.7 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 24141 | 301 |
Six Virginia cities with population within ±25% of Radford. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Radford.
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.