In 2025, fire departments serving Ursa responded to 15 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Trash or rubbish fire, contained lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
45 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 5 | — | |
| 2022 | 6 | — | |
| 2023 | 15 | +150.0% | |
| 2024* | 4 | — | |
| 2025 | 15 | — |
* Well below Ursa'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 2 building fires Ursa 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 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 Ursa 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. Ursa sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,603 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 835 | 33.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 280 | 12.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 238 | 16.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 210 | 27.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 33.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 33.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 33.4 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 140 | 37.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 108 | 40.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 107 | 34.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 100 | 39.2 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 100 | 15.8 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 Illinois cities with population within ±25% of Ursa. 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.