In 2025, fire departments serving Charleston responded to 1,134 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.0M 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.
May peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
6,444 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $34.4M cumulative property loss. 4 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,313 | — | |
| 2022 | 1,467 | +11.7% | |
| 2023 | 1,259 | -14.2% | |
| 2024 | 1,271 | +1.0% | |
| 2025 | 1,134 | -10.8% |
For the 142 building fires Charleston departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,750 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 | 330 | 18.9% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 249 | 14.2% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 188 | 10.7% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 115 | 6.6% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 98 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 57 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 54 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 48 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 38 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 35 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 538 | 30.7% |
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 Charleston mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 811 | 46.3% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 174 | 9.9% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 122 | 7.0% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 120 | 6.9% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 87 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 81 | 4.6% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 58 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 37 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 30 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 29 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 201 | 11.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Charleston departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 59% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $600,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $450,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Charleston sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
43 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 | 4 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 7 | |
| 40-49 | 7 | |
| 50-59 | 6 | |
| 60-69 | 4 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 28,539 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,765 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,466 | 39.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,933 | 25.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,922 | 36.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 1,834 | 25.4 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,695 | 34.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,630 | 25.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,600 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,600 | 38.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 1,247 | 34.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,115 | 26.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 904 | 12.7 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 South Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Charleston. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Charleston.
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.