In 2025, fire departments serving Aiken responded to 407 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $250K 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 67% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,291 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $10.7M cumulative property loss. 7 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 399 | — | |
| 2022 | 530 | +32.8% | |
| 2023 | 432 | -18.5% | |
| 2024 | 523 | +21.1% | |
| 2025 | 407 | -22.2% |
For the 96 building fires Aiken departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,081 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 | Outside area, other | 143 | 13.2% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 137 | 12.7% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 123 | 11.4% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 115 | 10.6% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 94 | 8.7% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 73 | 6.8% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 73 | 6.8% | |
| 8 | Other | 47 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 22 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 18 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 236 | 21.8% |
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 Aiken mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 343 | 31.7% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 104 | 9.6% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 103 | 9.5% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 103 | 9.5% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 55 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 48 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 46 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 40 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 39 | 3.6% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 37 | 3.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 163 | 15.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Aiken departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 67% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $54,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $50,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $45,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $30,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Aiken sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
19 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 5 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 7,918 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 950 | 6.3 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 650 | 37.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 586 | 37.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 481 | 33.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 373 | 34.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 310 | 36.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 22.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 290 | 47.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 285 | 31.9 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 263 | 33.8 mi | |
| 2004 | Smoking | 260 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 259 | 47.2 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six South Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Aiken. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
4 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Aiken.
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.