In 2025, fire departments serving Bay Minette responded to 134 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K 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 64% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
874 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.4M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 95 | — | |
| 2022 | 201 | — | |
| 2023 | 196 | -2.5% | |
| 2024 | 248 | +26.5% | |
| 2025 | 134 | -46.0% |
* Well below Bay Minette'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 17 building fires Bay Minette departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 258 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 | 71 | 27.5% | |
| 2 | Wildland, woods | 33 | 12.8% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 28 | 10.9% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 27 | 10.5% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 21 | 8.1% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 18 | 7.0% | |
| 7 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 8 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 8 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 5 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 5 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 34 | 13.2% |
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 Bay Minette mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 161 | 62.4% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 18 | 7.0% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 12 | 4.7% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 9 | 3.5% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 7 | 2.7% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 7 | 2.7% | |
| 7 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 6 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 6 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 4 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Lightning | 4 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 24 | 9.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bay Minette departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 99% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $150,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $5,000 | Trash or rubbish fire, contained | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $5,000 | Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $3,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bay Minette sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
18 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 | 4 | |
| 20-29 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 37,081 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,394 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,332 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 2,215 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 2,100 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,846 | 29.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 1,600 | 31.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 1,594 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 1,555 | 39.9 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,500 | 49.7 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 1,280 | 32.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,209 | 43.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 1,200 | 11.8 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 Bay Minette. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Bay Minette.
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.