In 2025, fire departments serving Calhoun responded to 78 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $30K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Calhoun's departments reported 78 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 338 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 63% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,688 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $8.4M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 368 | — | |
| 2022 | 325 | -11.7% | |
| 2023 | 503 | +54.8% | |
| 2024 | 414 | -17.7% | |
| 2025* | 78 | — |
* Well below Calhoun'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 7 building fires Calhoun departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 751 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 | 213 | 28.4% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 120 | 16.0% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 86 | 11.5% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 47 | 6.3% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 34 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 27 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 27 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Other | 16 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 16 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 15 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 150 | 20.0% |
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 Calhoun mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 416 | 55.4% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 35 | 4.7% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 29 | 3.9% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 28 | 3.7% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 28 | 3.7% | |
| 6 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 26 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Radiated heat from another fire | 24 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Arcing | 22 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 22 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 16 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 105 | 14.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Calhoun departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 83% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $12,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $8,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $7,000 | Fire in portable building, fixed location | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Calhoun sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
21 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 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 6 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 4 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 56,026 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Natural | 27,870 | 35.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 2,836 | 35.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 2,083 | 39.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 40.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 36.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 1,448 | 36.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,350 | 48.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,281 | 22.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,167 | 49.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 1,100 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,075 | 47.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,010 | 38.9 mi |
Top 6 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Georgia cities with population within ±25% of Calhoun. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Calhoun.
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.