In 2025, fire departments serving Willow Springs responded to 44 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 61% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
279 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $146K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 68 | — | |
| 2022 | 69 | +1.5% | |
| 2023 | 60 | -13.0% | |
| 2024 | 38 | -36.7% | |
| 2025 | 44 | +15.8% |
For the 2 building fires Willow Springs departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 198 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 47 | 23.7% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 38 | 19.2% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 24 | 12.1% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 16 | 8.1% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 10 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 8 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 7 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Other | 6 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Cooking area, kitchen | 5 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 4 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 33 | 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 Willow Springs mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 85 | 42.9% | |
| 2 | Match | 43 | 21.7% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 20 | 10.1% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 11 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 10 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 6 | 3.0% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 5 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 4 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 1.5% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 3 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 8 | 4.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Willow Springs departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Willow Springs sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
8 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 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 27,395 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,761 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,521 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,460 | 13.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,365 | 36.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,200 | 40.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 1,126 | 23.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,027 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 956 | 24.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 911 | 39.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 876 | 32.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Smoking | 844 | 37.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 800 | 13.3 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 | 65793 | 279 |
Six Missouri cities with population within ±25% of Willow Springs. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Willow Springs.
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.