In 2025, fire departments serving Williamsburg responded to 76 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Aircraft standby lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 58% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
357 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $10K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 110 | — | |
| 2022 | 80 | -27.3% | |
| 2023 | 58 | -27.5% | |
| 2024* | 33 | — | |
| 2025 | 76 | — |
* Well below Williamsburg'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 10 building fires Williamsburg departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 179 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 | 133 | 74.3% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 10 | 5.6% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 5 | 2.8% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 5 | 2.8% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 4 | 2.2% | |
| 6 | Entrance way, lobby | 3 | 1.7% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 3 | 1.7% | |
| 8 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 2 | 1.1% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 2 | 1.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 9 | 5.0% |
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 Williamsburg mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 155 | 86.6% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 7 | 3.9% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 6 | 3.4% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 1.1% | |
| 5 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 1.1% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 0.6% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 0.6% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 0.6% | |
| 9 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 0.6% | |
| 10 | Radiated heat from another fire | 1 | 0.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 2 | 1.1% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Williamsburg sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 82,320 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,586 | 21.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 8,134 | 32.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,700 | 11.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,040 | 20.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,860 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,675 | 13.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,539 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,406 | 43.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,398 | 40.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,944 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,925 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 2,850 | 46.5 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 Kentucky cities with population within ±25% of Williamsburg. 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.