In 2025, fire departments serving Stearns responded to 10 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 100% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
37 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 2 | — | |
| 2022* | 3 | — | |
| 2023 | 5 | — | |
| 2024 | 17 | +240.0% | |
| 2025 | 10 | -41.2% |
* Well below Stearns'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 4 building fires Stearns departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 7 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 | 6 | 85.7% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 14.3% |
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 Stearns mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 6 | 85.7% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 14.3% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Stearns sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 77,462 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,586 | 22.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 8,134 | 30.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,700 | 26.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,646 | 42.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,040 | 33.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,675 | 29.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,398 | 24.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,944 | 42.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,925 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,784 | 32.6 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,537 | 28.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,500 | 48.3 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 | 42647 | 37 |
Six Kentucky cities with population within ±25% of Stearns. 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.