In 2025, fire departments serving Salem responded to 22 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $5K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 73% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
114 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $107K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 24 | — | |
| 2022 | 22 | -8.3% | |
| 2023* | 13 | — | |
| 2024 | 33 | — | |
| 2025 | 22 | -33.3% |
* Well below Salem'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 3 building fires Salem departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 10 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 | 4 | 40.0% | |
| 2 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 10.0% |
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 Salem mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 6 | 60.0% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 10.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Salem departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $5,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Salem sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 8,046 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,300 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 1,024 | 47.5 mi | |
| 2009 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,000 | 45.1 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 517 | 45.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 47.5 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 275 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 271 | 34.3 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 250 | 21.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 234 | 23.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 227 | 44.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 221 | 19.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 37.9 mi |
Top 4 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Kentucky cities with population within ±25% of Salem. 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.