In 2025, fire departments serving West Liberty responded to 27 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Cooking fire, confined to container lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 89% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
133 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $26K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 7 | — | |
| 2022 | 33 | — | |
| 2023 | 33 | +0.0% | |
| 2024 | 33 | +0.0% | |
| 2025 | 27 | -18.2% |
* Well below West Liberty'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 West Liberty departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 6 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 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 2 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Machinery room or area; elevator machinery room | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Roof surface: exterior | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 6 | Fuel tank, fuel line | 1 | 16.7% |
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 West Liberty mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat source: other | 2 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 33.3% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 1 | 16.7% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. West Liberty sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,100 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 175 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 33.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 78 | 43.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 71 | 47.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 49 | 22.8 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 48 | 12.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Equipment and vehicle use | 40 | 34.2 mi | |
| 1992 | Debris and open burning | 36 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 35 | 41.6 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 31 | 23.6 mi |
Top 3 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six West Virginia cities with population within ±25% of West Liberty. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in West Liberty.
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.