In 2025, fire departments serving Springfield responded to 2,012 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.1M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 57% of all calls.
May peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
10,684 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $25.2M cumulative property loss. 10 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2,329 | — | |
| 2022 | 2,139 | -8.2% | |
| 2023 | 1,693 | -20.9% | |
| 2024 | 2,511 | +48.3% | |
| 2025 | 2,012 | -19.9% |
For the 160 building fires Springfield departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 3,582 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 | 682 | 19.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 565 | 15.8% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 398 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 283 | 7.9% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 189 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 140 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 121 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 111 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 93 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 82 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 918 | 25.6% |
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 Springfield mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 2,124 | 59.3% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 190 | 5.3% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 174 | 4.9% | |
| 4 | Cigarette lighter | 173 | 4.8% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 172 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 106 | 3.0% | |
| 7 | Match | 84 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 73 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 70 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 68 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 348 | 9.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Springfield departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 54% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,077,300 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $432,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $125,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Springfield sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
68 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 5 | |
| 20-29 | 5 | |
| 30-39 | 12 | |
| 40-49 | 6 | |
| 50-59 | 8 | |
| 60-69 | 5 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 27,837 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,471 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,160 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,121 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,101 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,732 | 31.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,625 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,212 | 27.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,178 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,034 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,027 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,016 | 29.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,005 | 35.6 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Springfield.
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.