In 2025, fire departments serving Carbon Hill responded to 42 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Forest, woods or wildland fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 55% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
251 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $400K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 23 | — | |
| 2022 | 42 | — | |
| 2023 | 67 | +59.5% | |
| 2024 | 77 | +14.9% | |
| 2025 | 42 | -45.5% |
* Well below Carbon Hill'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 Carbon Hill departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 176 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 | 103 | 58.5% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 22 | 12.5% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 9 | 5.1% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 8 | 4.5% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 7 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Other | 4 | 2.3% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 3 | 1.7% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 3 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Vacant structural area | 3 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Storage area, other | 2 | 1.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 12 | 6.8% |
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 Carbon Hill mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 135 | 76.7% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 6 | 3.4% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 5 | 2.8% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 4 | 2.3% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 2.3% | |
| 6 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 4 | 2.3% | |
| 7 | Match | 3 | 1.7% | |
| 8 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 3 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 1.1% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 1.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 8 | 4.5% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Carbon Hill sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 22,527 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 2,950 | 41.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,784 | 33.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,003 | 30.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,308 | 29.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,163 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,014 | 34.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 919 | 30.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 890 | 34.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 706 | 40.3 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 700 | 32.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 660 | 30.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 631 | 12.4 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 Alabama cities with population within ±25% of Carbon Hill. 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.