In 2025, fire departments serving Belzoni responded to 59 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $20K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 68% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
395 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $948K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 77 | — | |
| 2022* | 29 | — | |
| 2023 | 105 | — | |
| 2024 | 125 | +19.0% | |
| 2025 | 59 | -52.8% |
* Well below Belzoni'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 7 building fires Belzoni departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 194 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 | 125 | 64.4% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 11 | 5.7% | |
| 3 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 9 | 4.6% | |
| 4 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 5 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 4 | 2.1% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 4 | 2.1% | |
| 7 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 4 | 2.1% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 4 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 3 | 1.5% | |
| 10 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 3 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 22 | 11.3% |
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 Belzoni mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 159 | 82.0% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 7 | 3.6% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 6 | 3.1% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 6 | 3.1% | |
| 5 | Radiated heat from another fire | 4 | 2.1% | |
| 6 | Heat, spark from friction | 3 | 1.5% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 2 | 1.0% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 0.5% | |
| 9 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 0.5% | |
| 10 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 1 | 0.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 4 | 2.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Belzoni departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $20,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Belzoni sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 11,377 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 5,208 | 41.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 510 | 48.9 mi | |
| 1998 | Debris and open burning | 473 | 20.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 34.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 339 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 315 | 49.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 300 | 44.7 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 285 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 279 | 15.6 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 265 | 15.3 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 250 | 44.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 250 | 23.8 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 | 39038 | 395 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Belzoni. 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.