In 2025, fire departments serving Blytheville responded to 166 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $175K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 59% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,270 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $8.7M cumulative property loss. 5 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 296 | — | |
| 2022 | 282 | -4.7% | |
| 2023 | 252 | -10.6% | |
| 2024 | 274 | +8.7% | |
| 2025 | 166 | -39.4% |
For the 33 building fires Blytheville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 516 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 | 175 | 33.9% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 62 | 12.0% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 36 | 7.0% | |
| 4 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 26 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 25 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 22 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 14 | 2.7% | |
| 8 | Wall surface: exterior | 13 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 12 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 11 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 120 | 23.3% |
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 Blytheville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 389 | 75.4% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 27 | 5.2% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 23 | 4.5% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 11 | 2.1% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 10 | 1.9% | |
| 6 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 7 | 1.4% | |
| 7 | Radiated heat from another fire | 7 | 1.4% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 6 | 1.2% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 6 | 1.2% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 5 | 1.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 25 | 4.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Blytheville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 68% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $175,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $105,995 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $58,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $45,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $40,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $35,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Blytheville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
13 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 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,477 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 450 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 35.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 316 | 21.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 200 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 175 | 45.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 168 | 38.4 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 148 | 27.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 139 | 11.2 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 135 | 44.7 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 122 | 28.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 100 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Smoking | 98 | 47.6 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 Arkansas cities with population within ±25% of Blytheville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Blytheville.
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.