In 2025, fire departments serving Bluffton responded to 222 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $2.5M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 51% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,179 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $16.5M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 234 | — | |
| 2022 | 253 | +8.1% | |
| 2023 | 233 | -7.9% | |
| 2024 | 237 | +1.7% | |
| 2025 | 222 | -6.3% |
For the 19 building fires Bluffton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 549 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 | 75 | 13.7% | |
| 2 | Wildland, woods | 63 | 11.5% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 62 | 11.3% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 58 | 10.6% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 51 | 9.3% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 31 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 25 | 4.6% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 18 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 13 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 12 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 141 | 25.7% |
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 Bluffton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 178 | 32.4% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 55 | 10.0% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 39 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 30 | 5.5% | |
| 5 | Lightning | 29 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 22 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 22 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 18 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 18 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 16 | 2.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 122 | 22.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bluffton departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 91% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $375,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $52,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bluffton sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 14,367 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 1,245 | 9.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 1,076 | 22.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 1,016 | 9.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 916 | 32.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 827 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 791 | 49.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 789 | 37.3 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 761 | 9.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 713 | 47.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 663 | 37.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 571 | 22.4 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 487 | 43.1 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 South Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Bluffton. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Bluffton.
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.