In 2025, fire departments serving Bayou Vista responded to 23 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $30K 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 78% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
111 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $411K cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 1 | — | |
| 2022* | 1 | — | |
| 2023 | 25 | — | |
| 2024 | 61 | +144.0% | |
| 2025 | 23 | -62.3% |
* Well below Bayou Vista'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 1 building fires Bayou Vista departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 27 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 5 | 18.5% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 18.5% | |
| 3 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 4 | 14.8% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 4 | 14.8% | |
| 5 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 2 | 7.4% | |
| 6 | Multiple areas | 2 | 7.4% | |
| 7 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Exterior, exposed surface | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 10 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1 | 3.7% |
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 Bayou Vista mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 8 | 29.6% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 4 | 14.8% | |
| 3 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 4 | 14.8% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 7.4% | |
| 6 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Match | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 10 | Backfire from internal combustion engine | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1 | 3.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bayou Vista departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $30,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $150 | Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bayou Vista sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
5 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 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 6 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 880 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 614 | 31.6 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 75 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 70 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 55 | 23.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 47 | 26.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 19 | 26.8 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 Louisiana cities with population within ±25% of Bayou Vista. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.