In 2025, fire departments serving Union Hall responded to 18 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 89% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
54 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $826K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 4 | — | |
| 2022* | 2 | — | |
| 2023 | 15 | — | |
| 2024 | 15 | +0.0% | |
| 2025 | 18 | +20.0% |
* Well below Union Hall'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 0 building fires Union Hall departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 27 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 | 18 | 66.7% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 2 | 7.4% | |
| 4 | Conduit, pipe, utility, or ventilation shaft | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 5 | Structural area, other | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 3.7% |
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 Union Hall mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 21 | 77.8% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 3 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 4 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 5 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 3.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Union Hall departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000 | Special outside fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Union Hall sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 43,810 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Fireworks | 7,351 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,990 | 28.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 3,696 | 35.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 2,935 | 40.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,871 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2,738 | 37.2 mi | |
| 1995 | Smoking | 2,151 | 37.1 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,678 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,676 | 41.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,550 | 27.4 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,354 | 45.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,349 | 30.8 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Virginia cities with population within ±25% of Union Hall. 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.