In 2025, fire departments serving Bude responded to 12 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $12K 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 83% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
38 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $82K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 2 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023 | 6 | — | |
| 2024 | 18 | +200.0% | |
| 2025 | 12 | -33.3% |
* Well below Bude'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 3 building fires Bude departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 10 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 | 4 | 40.0% | |
| 2 | Other | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 10.0% |
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 Bude mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 4 | 40.0% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 3 | 30.0% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 4 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 10.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bude departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $12,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bude sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 18,293 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 | 4,110 | 37.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 4,109 | 19.3 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 1,200 | 28.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 623 | 32.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 622 | 25.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 570 | 19.6 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 550 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 491 | 18.2 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 486 | 28.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 453 | 20.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 408 | 22.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 48.5 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 | 39630 | 38 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Bude. 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.