In 2025, fire departments serving Asheboro responded to 310 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $90K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 44% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,399 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $3.6M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 228 | — | |
| 2022 | 229 | +0.4% | |
| 2023 | 348 | +52.0% | |
| 2024 | 284 | -18.4% | |
| 2025 | 310 | +9.2% |
For the 33 building fires Asheboro departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 492 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 | 104 | 21.1% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 77 | 15.7% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 55 | 11.2% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 52 | 10.6% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 33 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 31 | 6.3% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 17 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Other | 10 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 10 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 9 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 94 | 19.1% |
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 Asheboro mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 248 | 50.4% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 33 | 6.7% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 29 | 5.9% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 27 | 5.5% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 23 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 22 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 18 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 17 | 3.5% | |
| 9 | Radiated heat from another fire | 8 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 7 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 60 | 12.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Asheboro departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 76% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $90,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $25,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $25,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $14,760 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $10,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Asheboro sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,846 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 500 | 19.9 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 410 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 373 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 364 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Recreation and ceremony | 339 | 47.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 330 | 27.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 300 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 289 | 39.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 267 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 250 | 47.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 214 | 16.5 mi | |
| 1993 | Natural | 200 | 38.8 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 North Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Asheboro. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Asheboro.
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.