In 2025, fire departments serving Carrollton responded to 816 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 55% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,585 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $13.2M cumulative property loss. 6 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 600 | — | |
| 2022 | 685 | +14.2% | |
| 2023 | 770 | +12.4% | |
| 2024 | 714 | -7.3% | |
| 2025 | 816 | +14.3% |
For the 75 building fires Carrollton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 717 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 | 23.6% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 90 | 12.6% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 57 | 7.9% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 53 | 7.4% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 53 | 7.4% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 23 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 22 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Other | 19 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Wildland, woods | 19 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 16 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 196 | 27.3% |
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 Carrollton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 402 | 56.1% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 48 | 6.7% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 41 | 5.7% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 27 | 3.8% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 27 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 21 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 21 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 20 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 13 | 1.8% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 11 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 86 | 12.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Carrollton departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 71% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $489,260 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $448,272 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $139,308 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $115,200 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $100,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Carrollton 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 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 28,669 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,321 | 27.8 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,108 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 3,000 | 44.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,500 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,229 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,350 | 28.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,078 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 932 | 45.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 907 | 43.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 867 | 34.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 800 | 48.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 750 | 35.9 mi |
Top 4 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 Carrollton. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Carrollton.
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.