In 2025, fire departments serving Sistersville responded to 31 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $8K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Sistersville's departments reported 31 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 55 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Aircraft standby lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 94% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
277 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $313K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 28 | — | |
| 2022 | 83 | — | |
| 2023 | 76 | -8.4% | |
| 2024 | 59 | -22.4% | |
| 2025* | 31 | — |
* Well below Sistersville'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 2 building fires Sistersville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 18 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 | 5 | 27.8% | |
| 2 | Storage area, other | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Function area, other | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Dining room, cafeteria bar area, beverage service | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Office | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 8 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 9 | Roof surface: exterior | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 2 | 11.1% |
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 Sistersville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 16 | 88.9% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 5.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Sistersville departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $8,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Sistersville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,976 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 147 | 13.2 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 130 | 39.8 mi | |
| 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 125 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 121 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 120 | 27.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 109 | 37.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Smoking | 102 | 25.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 23.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 100 | 35.7 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 75 | 49.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 71 | 22.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Equipment and vehicle use | 70 | 19.4 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 | 26175 | 277 |
Six West Virginia cities with population within ±25% of Sistersville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Sistersville.
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.