In 2025, fire departments serving Baldwyn responded to 79 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $53K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 68% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
380 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $2.7M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 73 | — | |
| 2022* | 32 | — | |
| 2023 | 85 | — | |
| 2024 | 111 | +30.6% | |
| 2025 | 79 | -28.8% |
* Well below Baldwyn'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 24 building fires Baldwyn departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 111 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 | 53 | 47.7% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 7 | 6.3% | |
| 3 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 5 | 4.5% | |
| 4 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 4 | 3.6% | |
| 5 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 4 | 3.6% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 4 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Wall surface: exterior | 3 | 2.7% | |
| 8 | Outside area, other | 3 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Exterior stairway, ramp, or fire escape | 2 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 23 | 20.7% |
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 Baldwyn mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 70 | 63.1% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 13 | 11.7% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 5 | 4.5% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 3.6% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 2.7% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 2.7% | |
| 7 | Match | 3 | 2.7% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 1.8% | |
| 9 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 2 | 1.8% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 0.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 5 | 4.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Baldwyn departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $53,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $14,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $3,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $1 | Grass fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Baldwyn sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
6 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 | 2 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 18,301 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,826 | 42.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Smoking | 1,620 | 27.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,344 | 25.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,130 | 42.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1,092 | 44.0 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,007 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,005 | 36.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 1,000 | 29.1 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 891 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 702 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 608 | 30.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 537 | 28.9 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 | 38824 | 380 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Baldwyn. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Baldwyn.
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.