In 2025, fire departments serving Camden responded to 226 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $250K 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 54% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,515 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $5.5M cumulative property loss. 4 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 335 | — | |
| 2022 | 301 | -10.1% | |
| 2023 | 285 | -5.3% | |
| 2024 | 368 | +29.1% | |
| 2025 | 226 | -38.6% |
For the 36 building fires Camden departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 611 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 | 169 | 27.7% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 68 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 62 | 10.1% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 62 | 10.1% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 53 | 8.7% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 37 | 6.1% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 30 | 4.9% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 13 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 12 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 10 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 95 | 15.5% |
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 Camden mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 344 | 56.3% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 41 | 6.7% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 33 | 5.4% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 21 | 3.4% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 18 | 2.9% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 18 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 17 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 13 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 11 | 1.8% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 11 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 84 | 13.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Camden departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 75% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $45,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $35,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $30,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $30,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Camden sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
20 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 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 6 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 6 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 15,591 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,684 | 34.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,484 | 21.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 985 | 13.1 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 950 | 26.6 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 39.7 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 730 | 30.8 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 31.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 400 | 49.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 400 | 47.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Natural | 395 | 35.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 382 | 12.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 378 | 44.9 mi |
Top 7 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 Camden. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Camden.
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.