In 2025, fire departments serving Thayer responded to 19 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 90% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
112 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 12 | — | |
| 2022 | 18 | — | |
| 2023 | 32 | +77.8% | |
| 2024 | 31 | -3.1% | |
| 2025 | 19 | -38.7% |
* Well below Thayer'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 Thayer departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 78 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 34 | 43.6% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 12 | 15.4% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 6 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 6 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 6.4% | |
| 6 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 3 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Function area, other | 1 | 1.3% | |
| 9 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 1.3% | |
| 10 | Storage area, other | 1 | 1.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 7 | 9.0% |
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 Thayer mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hot ember or ash | 24 | 30.8% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 18 | 23.1% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 15 | 19.2% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 12 | 15.4% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Explosive, fireworks, other | 1 | 1.3% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Thayer sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 22,096 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,521 | 31.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,460 | 35.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,365 | 38.8 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,200 | 32.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 1,126 | 38.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 956 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 928 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 911 | 38.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 800 | 36.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 800 | 38.6 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 780 | 24.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 740 | 49.8 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 | 65791 | 112 |
Six Missouri cities with population within ±25% of Thayer. 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.