In 2025, fire departments serving Cartersville responded to 555 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $450K 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 61% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,799 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $13.2M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 507 | — | |
| 2022 | 524 | +3.4% | |
| 2023 | 615 | +17.4% | |
| 2024 | 598 | -2.8% | |
| 2025 | 555 | -7.2% |
For the 34 building fires Cartersville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 990 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 | 328 | 33.1% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 113 | 11.4% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 103 | 10.4% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 83 | 8.4% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 57 | 5.8% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 36 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 31 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 20 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 15 | 1.5% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 15 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 189 | 19.1% |
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 Cartersville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 632 | 63.8% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 50 | 5.1% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 43 | 4.3% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 41 | 4.1% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 29 | 2.9% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 23 | 2.3% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 23 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 17 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 16 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Heat source: other | 15 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 101 | 10.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Cartersville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 82% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $450,000 | Attempt to burn | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $125,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $70,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $60,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Cartersville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
16 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 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 4 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 20,740 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 | 41.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 1,448 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,350 | 38.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,281 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 965 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 907 | 35.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 900 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 780 | 31.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 740 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 690 | 35.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 680 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 659 | 46.8 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 Cartersville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Cartersville.
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.