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2025 County Report

Fires in Clay County, WV

In 2025, fire departments serving Clay County responded to 103 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $85K property loss.

524 residents FIPS 54015 52 cities · 3 fire depts
Total incidents
103
622 across 5 years
Building fires
22
23 wildland
Property loss
$296K
$230K structure · $66K contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Building fires lead by count. Top five categories make up about 63% of all calls.

103
Total Incidents
Building fires 22 21.4%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 13 12.6%
Vehicle accident, general cleanup 12 11.7%
Hazardous condition, other 10 9.7%
Forest, woods or wildland fire 8 7.8%
All other categories 38 36.9%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Clay County?

Jul peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 4
Feb 11
Mar 14
Apr 13
May 13
Jun 12
Jul 17
Aug 11
Sep 6
Oct 1
Nov 1
Dec 0
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Clay County

622 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 103
2022 123
2023 143
2024 150
2025 103
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 22 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
34%
11
Cause undetermined
16%
5
Intentional / arson
9%
3
Equipment / heat source failure
6%
2
Under investigation
22%
7
Act of nature (lightning)
13%
1
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $226K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Clay County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 98% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $85,000 Clay Building fires Significant
2 $60,000 Clay Building fires Significant
3 $35,000 clay Building fires Significant
4 $16,000 DUTCH RIDGE Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other Significant
5 $12,000 Lizemore Passenger vehicle fire Significant
6 $7,500 Lizemore Passenger vehicle fire Significant
7 $5,000 Duck Passenger vehicle fire Significant
8 $2,000 Clay Building fires Significant
9 $2,000 Clay Building fires Significant
10 $1,200 Clay Building fires Significant
06 How Clay County compares

Clay County vs WV vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

196.56
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Clay County
196.56
WV avg
22.82
US avg
7.15
41.98
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Clay County
41.98
WV avg
4.85
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Clay County
0
WV avg
41.5
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Clay County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 54015.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Clay County

3 departments report from this county.

CLAY VFD
Clay
FDID 08101 44 incidents 22 vol
LIZEMORE VFD
LIZEMORE
FDID 08104 28 incidents 17 vol
BIG OTTER VFD
Ivydale
FDID 08103 13 incidents 25 vol
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in WV

Top 10 fire perimeters by acres burned (state-scoped fallback while we build out per-county polygons).

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 GAULEY MTN 1991 NPS 12,324
2 Steep Valley 2023 NPS 2,182
3 Dry Hollow Fire 2019 USFS 1,288
4 ABRAHAM 2001 NPS 547
5 Castle 2018 USFS 427
6 Unnamed fire 1981 NPS 412
7 Highland 2024 NPS 231
8 North 2017 USFS 192
9 947 2023 USFS 165
10 873122 1987 NPS 162

About this data

County-level NFIRS aggregates for 2025, plus 5-year totals across 2021–2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Wildfire risk score (0–100) and Expected Annual Loss come from FEMA's National Risk Index. Drought class is the most recent USDM classification (D0 = abnormally dry through D4 = exceptional drought). Historical fire perimeters are sourced from the NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History.