In 2025, fire departments serving Saltville responded to 20 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 80% of all calls.
Mar peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
117 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $287K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 38 | — | |
| 2022 | 32 | -15.8% | |
| 2023 | 18 | -43.8% | |
| 2024* | 9 | — | |
| 2025 | 20 | — |
* Well below Saltville'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 8 building fires Saltville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 20 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 | 10 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 15.0% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Other | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 1 | 5.0% |
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 Saltville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 14 | 70.0% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 3 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 4 | Cigarette lighter | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Candle | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Lightning | 1 | 5.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Saltville departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Saltville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 40,300 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 5,832 | 30.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,850 | 29.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 2,575 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,000 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,727 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,538 | 43.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,531 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2013 | Smoking | 1,509 | 33.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 1,500 | 49.3 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,485 | 35.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,264 | 44.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 1,208 | 47.5 mi |
Top 3 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 Saltville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Saltville.
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.