In 2025, fire departments serving Yates City responded to 17 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Fire, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 100% of all calls.
Nov peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
45 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $483K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 2 | — | |
| 2022* | 1 | — | |
| 2023 | 12 | — | |
| 2024 | 13 | +8.3% | |
| 2025 | 17 | +30.8% |
* Well below Yates City'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 Yates City departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 29 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 | Other | 11 | 37.9% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 5 | 17.2% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 4 | 13.8% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 4 | 13.8% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 6.9% | |
| 6 | Storage area, other | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Structural area, other | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 3.4% |
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 Yates City mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat source: other | 18 | 62.1% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 8 | 27.6% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 4 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 5 | Lightning | 1 | 3.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Yates City departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Yates City sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,453 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 375 | 28.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 250 | 31.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 10.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 51 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 45 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 40 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 43.1 mi | |
| 2013 | Debris and open burning | 37 | 27.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 35 | 40.5 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 28 | 29.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Debris and open burning | 25 | 43.9 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 | 61572 | 45 |
Six Illinois cities with population within ±25% of Yates City. 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.