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2025 County Report

Fires in Shelby County, MO

In 2025, fire departments serving Shelby County responded to 48 fire and hazmat incidents.

3,972 residents FIPS 29205 20 cities · 2 fire depts
Total incidents
48
255 across 5 years
Building fires
7
14 wildland
Property loss
$0
$0 structure · $0 contents
Casualties
0 / 1
0 civ deaths · 1 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Aircraft standby lead by count. Top five categories make up about 69% of all calls.

48
Total Incidents
Aircraft standby 13 27.1%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 8 16.7%
Building fires 7 14.6%
Grass fire 3 6.2%
Fire, other 2 4.2%
All other categories 15 31.2%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Shelby County?

Feb peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 1
Feb 8
Mar 7
Apr 5
May 3
Jun 2
Jul 7
Aug 1
Sep 1
Oct 8
Nov 5
Dec 0
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Shelby County

255 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 28
2022 54
2023 65
2024 60
2025 48
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 7 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
31%
5
Cause undetermined
50%
8
Intentional / arson
6%
1
Equipment / heat source failure
12%
2
Under investigation
0%
0
Act of nature (lightning)
1%
0
06 How Shelby County compares

Shelby County vs MO vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

12.08
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Shelby County
12.08
MO avg
12.53
US avg
7.15
1.76
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Shelby County
1.76
MO avg
1.62
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Shelby County
0
MO avg
9.8
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Shelby County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 29205.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Shelby County

2 departments report from this county.

Unassigned
Brookfield
FDID 10301 0 incidents 15 vol
City of Clarence Fire Dept
Clarence
FDID 10304 0 incidents 18 vol
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in MO

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

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 Minninghaw 2011 USFS 4,762
2 Mud Pond 2011 USFS 3,520
3 Willie 2020 USFS 2,472
4 23 Thorny Creek BIL RX 2023 NPS 2,223
5 Carty 2015 USFS 2,145
6 Swan Creek 2019 USFS 2,119
7 Rozell 2018 USFS 2,102
8 Devreaux 2023 USFS 2,028
9 Liberty 2012 USFS 1,623
10 Sugar 2024 USFS 1,611

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.