In 2025, fire departments serving Benton responded to 106 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $250K 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 63% of all calls.
Nov peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
612 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $5.2M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 98 | — | |
| 2022 | 160 | +63.3% | |
| 2023 | 128 | -20.0% | |
| 2024 | 120 | -6.2% | |
| 2025 | 106 | -11.7% |
For the 11 building fires Benton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 350 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 | 113 | 32.3% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 52 | 14.9% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 39 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 22 | 6.3% | |
| 5 | Other | 20 | 5.7% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 18 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 11 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Cooking area, kitchen | 10 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 7 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 7 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 51 | 14.6% |
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 Benton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 118 | 33.7% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 50 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 29 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 24 | 6.9% | |
| 5 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 22 | 6.3% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 16 | 4.6% | |
| 7 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 15 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 14 | 4.0% | |
| 9 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 13 | 3.7% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 9 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 40 | 11.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Benton departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 95% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $250,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $230,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $196,443 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $125,372 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $110,298 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $85,785 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $67,943 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Benton sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
12 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 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 57,680 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 41,050 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,378 | 22.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,036 | 29.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,465 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,299 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,048 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 902 | 23.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 850 | 43.6 mi | |
| 2004 | Natural | 727 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 669 | 34.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 557 | 30.8 mi | |
| 1998 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 452 | 14.3 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 Benton. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Benton.
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.