In 2025, fire departments serving Sturgeon responded to 24 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $90K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 75% of all calls.
Mar peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
101 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $355K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 11 | — | |
| 2022 | 13 | — | |
| 2023 | 18 | +38.5% | |
| 2024 | 35 | +94.4% | |
| 2025 | 24 | -31.4% |
* Well below Sturgeon'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 3 building fires Sturgeon departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 25 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 | 7 | 28.0% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 6 | 24.0% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 12.0% | |
| 4 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 2 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 2 | 8.0% | |
| 6 | Corridor, mall | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 9 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 10 | Exterior, exposed surface | 1 | 4.0% |
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 Sturgeon mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 8 | 32.0% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 3 | 12.0% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 8.0% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Munitions | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 9 | Fireworks | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 4 | 16.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Sturgeon departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $90,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $85,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $3,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Sturgeon sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,516 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 240 | 44.3 mi | |
| 2019 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 235 | 30.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Equipment and vehicle use | 150 | 28.7 mi | |
| 1992 | Debris and open burning | 120 | 24.7 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 120 | 25.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 110 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 103 | 36.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 100 | 44.7 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 100 | 14.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 100 | 44.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 11.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 100 | 37.3 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 Missouri cities with population within ±25% of Sturgeon. 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.