In 2025, fire departments serving Basile responded to 34 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 68% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
99 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 4 | — | |
| 2022* | 2 | — | |
| 2023 | 28 | — | |
| 2024 | 31 | +10.7% | |
| 2025 | 34 | +9.7% |
* Well below Basile'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 5 building fires Basile departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 65 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 15 | 23.1% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 14 | 21.5% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 13 | 20.0% | |
| 4 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 3 | 4.6% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 4.6% | |
| 6 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 7 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 1 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 8 | 12.3% |
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 Basile mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 35 | 53.8% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 4 | 6.2% | |
| 3 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 4 | 6.2% | |
| 4 | Match | 3 | 4.6% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Lightning | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 7 | 10.8% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Basile sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 42,066 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,877 | 19.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 2,922 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 2,852 | 28.1 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 2,504 | 40.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,154 | 35.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 15.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,633 | 43.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,622 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,178 | 30.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,100 | 42.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,071 | 39.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 980 | 47.0 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 Louisiana cities with population within ±25% of Basile. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Basile.
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.