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Cause profile

Misuse of fire by a minor
fires

66,280 wildfire and 0 structure-fire incidents attributed to misuse of fire by a minor across the US in 1992–2020. They scorched 491,157 acres.

29 years tracked $0 property loss 50 states · 50 counties
Total incidents
66,280
1992–2020
Property loss
$0
NFIRS structure fires only
Civilian casualties
0 / 0
deaths / injuries
Avg per year
2,286
incidents / yr
01 Long-term trend

How misuse of fire by a minor fires have changed

Year-by-year incidents from 1992–2020.

199220062020
02 Top states

Where misuse of fire by a minor fires concentrate

50 states ranked by cumulative misuse of fire by a minor incidents.

CA
9,316 · 133,795 ac NC
8,513 · 15,994 ac GA
6,561 · 12,857 ac NJ
4,799 · 2,970 ac FL
4,681 · 29,333 ac SD
4,227 · 55,844 ac MN
3,544 · 5,692 ac SC
3,274 · 7,957 ac AZ
2,495 · 15,100 ac TX
1,701 · 22,553 ac NY
1,603 · 1,830 ac VA
1,255 · 2,489 ac MT
1,234 · 14,067 ac WI
1,132 · 768 ac AL
1,076 · 6,972 ac OR
1,008 · 53,739 ac WV
976 · 4,669 ac WA
911 · 6,857 ac ME
613 · 855 ac AK
567 · 724 ac ND
513 · 4,820 ac MI
500 · 1,513 ac NM
461 · 14,281 ac OK
417 · 8,913 ac MS
415 · 4,211 ac
03 Top counties

Misuse of fire by a minor hotspots by county

Top 50 counties by cumulative misuse of fire by a minor incidents.

#CountyStateIncidentsAcres
1 Ocean County NJ 1,397 603 ac
2 Riverside County CA 1,057 5,791 ac
3 Atlantic County NJ 669 364 ac
4 Los Angeles County CA 480 39,051 ac
5 Cape May County NJ 403 386 ac
6 Cumberland County NJ 397 242 ac
7 Burlington County NJ 335 213 ac
8 San Bernardino County CA 329 431 ac
9 Camden County NJ 280 187 ac
10 Spokane County WA 269 343 ac
11 Fresno County CA 248 392 ac
12 Contra Costa County CA 239 161 ac
13 San Diego County CA 239 1,254 ac
14 Gloucester County NJ 232 230 ac
15 Aiken County SC 229 608 ac
16 Morris County NJ 223 139 ac
17 Polk County FL 204 1,907 ac
18 Lexington County SC 200 419 ac
19 Kern County CA 199 85 ac
20 Bay County FL 190 1,059 ac
21 Charlotte County FL 190 498 ac
22 Butte County CA 185 1,004 ac
23 Shasta County CA 183 170 ac
24 Monmouth County NJ 181 114 ac
25 Middlesex County NJ 179 93 ac
26 Volusia County FL 177 613 ac
27 Madera County CA 165 748 ac
28 Santa Rosa County FL 163 340 ac
29 Tulare County CA 162 230 ac
30 Lee County FL 159 1,103 ac
31 Plymouth County MA 158 86 ac
32 Josephine County OR 152 1,173 ac
33 El Dorado County CA 147 82 ac
34 Duval County FL 146 487 ac
35 Laurens County GA 146 154 ac
36 Union County NC 139 194 ac
37 Appling County GA 138 158 ac
38 Merced County CA 135 321 ac
39 Sarasota County FL 133 216 ac
40 Placer County CA 132 614 ac
41 Orange County NY 129 129 ac
42 Harnett County NC 127 161 ac
43 Highlands County FL 125 333 ac
44 Collier County FL 120 267 ac
45 Burke County NC 120 2,467 ac
46 Pasco County FL 118 528 ac
47 Onslow County NC 118 134 ac
48 Cherokee County GA 117 230 ac
49 Florence County SC 116 148 ac
50 Escambia County FL 112 579 ac

About this data

FireVerge's cause profiles use the 13 ignition categories defined by the FPA FOD (Fire Program Analysis Fire-Occurrence Database, 6th edition: 2.3M wildfire records, 1992–2020). NFIRS CAUSE_IGN codes from 11.4M structure incidents (2021–2025) are cross-classified into the same taxonomy where they align cleanly. Wildfires (FOD) and structure fires (NFIRS) are tracked as separate sources because their data captures very different things — FOD records every wildfire ignition in the US, while NFIRS counts emergency-department responses.