In 2025, fire departments serving Carolina Beach responded to 124 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $5K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Prescribed fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 79% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
285 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $107K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 13 | — | |
| 2022* | 30 | — | |
| 2023* | 13 | — | |
| 2024 | 105 | — | |
| 2025 | 124 | +18.1% |
* Well below Carolina Beach'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 8 building fires Carolina Beach departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 24 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 | 8 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Other | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 5 | Corridor, mall | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Function area, other | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 9 | Dining room, cafeteria bar area, beverage service | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 10 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 5 | 20.8% |
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 Carolina Beach mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 11 | 45.8% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 5 | 20.8% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Candle | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Chemical reaction | 1 | 4.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Carolina Beach departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Carolina Beach sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 55,079 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Natural | 31,140 | 37.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 2,727 | 31.5 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,084 | 42.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 1,577 | 17.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,533 | 40.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 1,300 | 47.6 mi | |
| 1993 | Natural | 1,216 | 35.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,154 | 20.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 1,126 | 35.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,100 | 21.3 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 970 | 15.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 944 | 43.4 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 | 28428 | 285 |
Six North Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Carolina Beach. 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.