In 2025, fire departments serving Cary responded to 464 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $300K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 61% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,238 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $11.5M cumulative property loss. 5 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 606 | — | |
| 2022 | 735 | +21.3% | |
| 2023 | 740 | +0.7% | |
| 2024 | 693 | -6.4% | |
| 2025 | 464 | -33.0% |
For the 78 building fires Cary departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 918 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 122 | 13.3% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 116 | 12.6% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 107 | 11.7% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 80 | 8.7% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 78 | 8.5% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 55 | 6.0% | |
| 7 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 49 | 5.3% | |
| 8 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 34 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Outside area, other | 28 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 27 | 2.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 222 | 24.2% |
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 Cary mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 366 | 39.9% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 132 | 14.4% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 66 | 7.2% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 61 | 6.6% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 37 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 36 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 29 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 27 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Fireworks | 22 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 21 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 121 | 13.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Cary departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 63% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $70,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $70,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Cary sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
45 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 | 5 | |
| 30-39 | 7 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 9,452 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,778 | 33.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 750 | 40.1 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 550 | 47.3 mi | |
| 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 500 | 37.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 500 | 41.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 456 | 45.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 400 | 40.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Recreation and ceremony | 339 | 15.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 330 | 45.1 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 300 | 15.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 289 | 28.3 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 275 | 40.2 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six North Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Cary. 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.