In 2025, fire departments serving Wildwood responded to 167 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $543K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 68% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
560 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $5.1M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 65 | — | |
| 2022* | 44 | — | |
| 2023 | 135 | — | |
| 2024 | 149 | +10.4% | |
| 2025 | 167 | +12.1% |
* Well below Wildwood'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 19 building fires Wildwood departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 73 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 | 12 | 16.4% | |
| 2 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 10 | 13.7% | |
| 3 | Wildland, woods | 8 | 11.0% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 6 | 8.2% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 6.8% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 5 | 6.8% | |
| 7 | Other | 3 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 3 | 4.1% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 3 | 4.1% | |
| 10 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 16 | 21.9% |
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 Wildwood mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 40 | 54.8% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 6 | 8.2% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 5 | 6.8% | |
| 4 | Radiated heat from another fire | 5 | 6.8% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 4.1% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 2.7% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 2.7% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 1.4% | |
| 9 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 1.4% | |
| 10 | Incendiary device | 1 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 7 | 9.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Wildwood departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 98% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $543,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $306,366 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $231,280 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Wildwood sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
9 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 9,114 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,475 | 30.7 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,026 | 41.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 39.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 685 | 47.7 mi | |
| 1997 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 522 | 47.4 mi | |
| 1992 | Debris and open burning | 517 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2005 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 387 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | 365 | 43.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 360 | 24.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 37.5 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 270 | 31.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 265 | 34.6 mi |
Top 7 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Missouri cities with population within ±25% of Wildwood. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Wildwood.
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.