In 2025, fire departments serving Aberdeen responded to 83 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $300K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 76% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
384 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.2M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 45 | — | |
| 2022 | 63 | — | |
| 2023 | 67 | +6.3% | |
| 2024 | 126 | +88.1% | |
| 2025 | 83 | -34.1% |
* Well below Aberdeen'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 11 building fires Aberdeen departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 102 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 | Undetermined | 58 | 56.9% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 5 | 4.9% | |
| 3 | Vehicle area, other | 5 | 4.9% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 4.9% | |
| 5 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 4 | 3.9% | |
| 6 | Storage area, other | 3 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Corridor, mall | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Closet | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 14 | 13.7% |
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 Aberdeen mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 67 | 65.7% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 7 | 6.9% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 5 | 4.9% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 4 | 3.9% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 4 | 3.9% | |
| 6 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 4 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 1.0% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 1 | 1.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 4 | 3.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Aberdeen departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100 | Grass fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50 | Cultivated grain or crop fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $10 | Chimney or flue fire, confined to chimney or flue | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $4 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $2 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Aberdeen sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 8,846 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Smoking | 1,620 | 19.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 608 | 41.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 450 | 30.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 420 | 28.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 400 | 48.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 40.9 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 390 | 41.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 366 | 23.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 355 | 35.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 42.5 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 311 | 22.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 282 | 37.8 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 | 39730 | 384 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Aberdeen. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Aberdeen.
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.