In 2025, fire departments serving Valley Brook responded to 11 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $60K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 82% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
32 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $255K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 2 | — | |
| 2022* | 3 | — | |
| 2023 | 6 | — | |
| 2024 | 10 | +66.7% | |
| 2025 | 11 | +10.0% |
* Well below Valley Brook'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 1 building fires Valley Brook departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 15 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 | 5 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 2 | 13.3% | |
| 4 | Storage area, other | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 7 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 8 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 1 | 6.7% |
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 Valley Brook mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 10 | 66.7% | |
| 2 | Match | 2 | 13.3% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 4 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Lightning | 1 | 6.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Valley Brook departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,500 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Valley Brook sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 114,131 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 26,000 | 9.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,954 | 20.8 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,600 | 46.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,000 | 47.6 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,766 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,500 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,400 | 36.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,000 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,840 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2005 | Equipment and vehicle use | 3,500 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,475 | 7.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,250 | 26.8 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 Oklahoma cities with population within ±25% of Valley Brook. 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.