In 2025, fire departments serving Stanford responded to 91 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $76K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Authorized controlled burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 78% of all calls.
May peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
177 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $152K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 47 | — | |
| 2022 | 35 | -25.5% | |
| 2023* | 0 | — | |
| 2024* | 4 | — | |
| 2025 | 91 | — |
* Well below Stanford'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 6 building fires Stanford departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 64 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 | 31 | 48.4% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 9 | 14.1% | |
| 3 | Other | 5 | 7.8% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 4 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 6 | Structural area, other | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Entrance way, lobby | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 6 | 9.4% |
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 Stanford mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 52 | 81.2% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 4.7% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 4.7% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 8 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 1.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Stanford departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $75,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Stanford sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 18,938 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,537 | 30.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,100 | 36.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,000 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 940 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 896 | 28.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 855 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 800 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 780 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2013 | Arson/incendiarism | 715 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 700 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 650 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 643 | 42.1 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 | 40484 | 177 |
Six Kentucky cities with population within ±25% of Stanford. 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.