In 2025, fire departments serving Charleston responded to 724 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K 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 54% of all calls.
May peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
4,840 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $10.4M cumulative property loss. 4 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 998 | — | |
| 2022 | 1,319 | +32.2% | |
| 2023 | 985 | -25.3% | |
| 2024 | 814 | -17.4% | |
| 2025 | 724 | -11.1% |
For the 108 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 1,496 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 | 451 | 30.1% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 237 | 15.8% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 119 | 8.0% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 84 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Other | 58 | 3.9% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 57 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 45 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 41 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 33 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 25 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 346 | 23.1% |
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 Charleston mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 920 | 61.5% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 157 | 10.5% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 81 | 5.4% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 54 | 3.6% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 52 | 3.5% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 31 | 2.1% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 29 | 1.9% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 28 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 25 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 24 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 95 | 6.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Charleston departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 42% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $125,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $79,900 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $70,300 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Charleston sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
28 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 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 4 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 5 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 60,434 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Fireworks | 4,637 | 22.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Fireworks | 3,706 | 29.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,484 | 36.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Fireworks | 3,358 | 31.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,328 | 16.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Fireworks | 3,186 | 44.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Fireworks | 3,171 | 27.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,082 | 25.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,859 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,250 | 26.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,233 | 45.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,090 | 38.0 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 West Virginia cities with population within ±25% of Charleston. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
4 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.