In 2025, fire departments serving Cabot responded to 355 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $250K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 53% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,427 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $6.4M cumulative property loss. 5 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 277 | — | |
| 2022 | 286 | +3.2% | |
| 2023 | 249 | -12.9% | |
| 2024 | 260 | +4.4% | |
| 2025 | 355 | +36.5% |
For the 28 building fires Cabot departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 603 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 | 137 | 22.7% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 99 | 16.4% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 49 | 8.1% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 47 | 7.8% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 40 | 6.6% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 34 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 34 | 5.6% | |
| 8 | Other | 14 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 12 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 11 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 126 | 20.9% |
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 Cabot mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 304 | 50.4% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 72 | 11.9% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 42 | 7.0% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 31 | 5.1% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 23 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 18 | 3.0% | |
| 7 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 17 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 15 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 8 | 1.3% | |
| 10 | Match | 7 | 1.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 66 | 10.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Cabot departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 74% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $150,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $70,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Cabot sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
11 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 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 9,062 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 16.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 636 | 17.2 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 524 | 41.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 441 | 46.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 413 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 367 | 2.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 343 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 336 | 41.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 330 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 303 | 47.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 300 | 47.0 mi |
Top 5 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 Cabot. 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.