In 2025, fire departments serving West Buechel responded to 19 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Natural vegetation fire, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 74% of all calls.
Apr peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
31 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $110K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023* | 1 | — | |
| 2024 | 11 | — | |
| 2025 | 19 | +72.7% |
* Well below West Buechel'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 West Buechel departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 11 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 | 7 | 63.6% | |
| 2 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 2 | 18.2% | |
| 3 | Other | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 9.1% |
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 West Buechel mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 10 | 90.9% | |
| 2 | Chemical reaction | 1 | 9.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by West Buechel departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $7,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $3,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10 | Natural vegetation fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. West Buechel sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,879 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 354 | 33.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 18.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 215 | 47.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Smoking | 201 | 43.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 157 | 40.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 144 | 20.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 117 | 41.7 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 45.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 97 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 95 | 40.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 95 | 25.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 94 | 41.6 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 | 40218 | 31 |
Six Kentucky cities with population within ±25% of West Buechel. 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.