In 2025, fire departments serving Reston responded to 165 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $210K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 62% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
710 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $3.0M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 22 | — | |
| 2022 | 99 | — | |
| 2023 | 186 | +87.9% | |
| 2024 | 238 | +28.0% | |
| 2025 | 165 | -30.7% |
* Well below Reston'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 9 building fires Reston departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 196 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 | Outside area, other | 39 | 19.9% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 33 | 16.8% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 18 | 9.2% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 15 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 12 | 6.1% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 9 | 4.6% | |
| 7 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 8 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Other | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 47 | 24.0% |
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 Reston mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 86 | 43.9% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 17 | 8.7% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 12 | 6.1% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 11 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 11 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 8 | 4.1% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 7 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Candle | 4 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 32 | 16.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Reston departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 99% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $210,358 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $210,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $95,950 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $55,527 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $33,154 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Reston sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 7,493 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Other causes | 1,989 | 46.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 640 | 28.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Recreation and ceremony | 500 | 33.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 461 | 13.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 431 | 25.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Recreation and ceremony | 405 | 29.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 | 29.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 30.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 344 | 44.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 318 | 24.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 25.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 34.5 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 Virginia cities with population within ±25% of Reston. 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.