In 2025, fire departments serving Atmore responded to 241 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Aircraft standby lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 58% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
857 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $814K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 108 | — | |
| 2022 | 117 | +8.3% | |
| 2023 | 137 | +17.1% | |
| 2024 | 254 | +85.4% | |
| 2025 | 241 | -5.1% |
For the 29 building fires Atmore departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 386 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 | 75 | 19.4% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 71 | 18.4% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 39 | 10.1% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 39 | 10.1% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 26 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 24 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 22 | 5.7% | |
| 8 | Other | 16 | 4.1% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 9 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 6 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 59 | 15.3% |
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 Atmore mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 229 | 59.3% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 32 | 8.3% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 20 | 5.2% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 13 | 3.4% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 12 | 3.1% | |
| 6 | Match | 11 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 11 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 10 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 9 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 8 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 31 | 8.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Atmore departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Atmore sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
7 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 4 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 31,536 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,926 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,332 | 33.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 2,215 | 44.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,176 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,846 | 40.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 1,600 | 38.3 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 1,280 | 37.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 1,200 | 22.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,200 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,191 | 42.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,160 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 1,159 | 43.3 mi |
Top 2 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 Atmore. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Atmore.
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.