In 2025, fire departments serving West View responded to 23 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $69K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. West View's departments reported 23 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 60 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 83% of all calls.
May peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
298 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $69K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 55 | — | |
| 2022 | 108 | +96.4% | |
| 2023 | 68 | -37.0% | |
| 2024 | 44 | -35.3% | |
| 2025* | 23 | — |
* Well below West View'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 8 building fires West View departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 9 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 5 | 55.6% | |
| 2 | Exterior stairway, ramp, or fire escape | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 1 | 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 West View mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 4 | 44.4% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 1 | 11.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by West View departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $68,600 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. West View sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,211 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 173 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 152 | 38.6 mi | |
| 2013 | Debris and open burning | 106 | 31.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 78 | 46.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 76 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 60 | 44.3 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 48 | 29.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 45 | 40.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 41 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 38 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 35 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 30 | 46.8 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 Pennsylvania cities with population within ±25% of West View. 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.