In 2025, fire departments serving Warsaw responded to 18 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 89% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
77 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $1K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 10 | — | |
| 2022 | 18 | +80.0% | |
| 2023 | 22 | +22.2% | |
| 2024* | 9 | — | |
| 2025 | 18 | — |
* Well below Warsaw'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 Warsaw 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 | Other | 9 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 6 | 22.2% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 7.4% | |
| 4 | Entrance way, lobby | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 5 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 6 | Function area, other | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 10 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 3 | 11.1% |
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 Warsaw mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat source: other | 13 | 48.1% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 9 | 33.3% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 5 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 6 | Match | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 1 | 3.7% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Warsaw sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,119 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 280 | 12.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 238 | 34.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 210 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 38.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 34.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 196 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 180 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 180 | 38.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Smoking | 150 | 41.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 108 | 21.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 107 | 28.2 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 100 | 14.6 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 | 62379 | 77 |
Six Illinois cities with population within ±25% of Warsaw. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Warsaw.
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.