In 2025, fire departments serving Alabaster responded to 174 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 59% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
906 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $2.8M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 140 | — | |
| 2022 | 234 | +67.1% | |
| 2023 | 183 | -21.8% | |
| 2024 | 175 | -4.4% | |
| 2025 | 174 | -0.6% |
For the 9 building fires Alabaster departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 343 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 | 84 | 24.5% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 54 | 15.7% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 39 | 11.4% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 26 | 7.6% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 23 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Other | 14 | 4.1% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 12 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 10 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 8 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 7 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 66 | 19.2% |
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 Alabaster mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 170 | 49.6% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 20 | 5.8% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 18 | 5.2% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 16 | 4.7% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 15 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 15 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 15 | 4.4% | |
| 8 | Match | 11 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 9 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 8 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 46 | 13.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Alabaster departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 93% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $138,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $16,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Alabaster sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 26,972 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 2,950 | 20.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,784 | 32.7 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,590 | 31.1 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,925 | 35.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 1,800 | 17.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,540 | 26.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,308 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,262 | 41.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 1,100 | 18.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,066 | 40.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | 721 | 41.9 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 700 | 30.6 mi |
Top 3 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Alabama cities with population within ±25% of Alabaster. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Alabaster.
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.