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2025 County Report

Fires in Pleasants County, WV

In 2025, fire departments serving Pleasants County responded to 26 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $200K property loss.

3,105 residents FIPS 54073 26 cities · 2 fire depts
Total incidents
26
231 across 5 years
Building fires
9
3 wildland
Property loss
$290K
$255K structure · $35K 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 73% of all calls.

26
Total Incidents
Building fires 9 34.6%
Power line down 5 19.2%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 3 11.5%
Fire, other 1 3.8%
Fires in structures other than in a building 1 3.8%
All other categories 7 26.9%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Pleasants County?

Mar peaks. Sep dips.

Jan 1
Feb 1
Mar 6
Apr 3
May 4
Jun 6
Jul 4
Aug 1
Sep 0
Oct 0
Nov 0
Dec 0
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Pleasants County

231 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 50
2022 58
2023 60
2024 37
2025 26
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 9 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
56%
5
Cause undetermined
11%
1
Intentional / arson
22%
2
Equipment / heat source failure
11%
1
Under investigation
0%
0
Act of nature (lightning)
0%
0
05 The biggest fires

3 fires · $255K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Pleasants County during 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $200,000 Belmont Building fires Significant
2 $40,000 Saint Marys Building fires Significant
3 $15,000 Saint Marys Passenger vehicle fire Significant
06 How Pleasants County compares

Pleasants County vs WV vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

8.37
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Pleasants County
8.37
WV avg
22.82
US avg
7.15
2.9
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Pleasants County
2.9
WV avg
4.85
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Pleasants County
0
WV avg
41.5
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Pleasants County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 54073.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Pleasants County

2 departments report from this county.

ST MARYS VFD
ST MARYS
FDID 37102 18 incidents 33 vol
BELMONT VFD
Belmont
FDID 37101 12 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.