In 2025, fire departments serving Chapel Hill responded to 308 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.2M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Chapel Hill's departments reported 308 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 540 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 54% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,701 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $10.8M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 604 | — | |
| 2022 | 543 | -10.1% | |
| 2023 | 646 | +19.0% | |
| 2024 | 600 | -7.1% | |
| 2025* | 308 | — |
* Well below Chapel 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 33 building fires Chapel Hill departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 510 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 | 84 | 16.5% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 67 | 13.1% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 64 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 56 | 11.0% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 34 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 32 | 6.3% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 16 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 12 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 11 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 11 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 123 | 24.1% |
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 Chapel Hill mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 250 | 49.0% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 45 | 8.8% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 35 | 6.9% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 25 | 4.9% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 22 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 22 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 20 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 13 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 11 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 8 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 59 | 11.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Chapel Hill departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 98% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,217,300 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $489,900 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $72,400 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Chapel Hill sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
23 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 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 7 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 4 | |
| 70-79 | 3 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 8,598 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 | 36.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 750 | 49.2 mi | |
| 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 500 | 30.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 500 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 456 | 38.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Recreation and ceremony | 339 | 22.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 330 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 300 | 23.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 289 | 12.5 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 274 | 40.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 267 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 257 | 39.3 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 Chapel Hill. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Chapel Hill.
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.