In 2025, fire departments serving Blue Mountain responded to 25 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $75K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Forest, woods or wildland fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 68% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
117 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $763K cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 17 | — | |
| 2022* | 8 | — | |
| 2023 | 30 | — | |
| 2024 | 37 | +23.3% | |
| 2025 | 25 | -32.4% |
* Well below Blue Mountain'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 Blue Mountain departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 44 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 | 28 | 63.6% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 4 | 9.1% | |
| 3 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 2 | 4.5% | |
| 4 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 2 | 4.5% | |
| 5 | Other | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 7 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 2 | 4.5% |
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 Blue Mountain mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 33 | 75.0% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 2 | 4.5% | |
| 3 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 2 | 4.5% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 6 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Sunlight | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 2.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Blue Mountain departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $75,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,000 | Fire in portable building, fixed location | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50 | Forest, woods or wildland fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Blue Mountain sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 20,218 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,826 | 24.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Smoking | 1,620 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,344 | 40.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,200 | 42.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,130 | 18.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1,092 | 22.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,007 | 23.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,005 | 14.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 1,000 | 7.0 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 891 | 27.2 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 870 | 27.7 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 770 | 26.8 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 | 38610 | 117 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Blue Mountain. 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.