In 2025, fire departments serving Chester responded to 236 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 49% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,018 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $2.4M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 188 | — | |
| 2022* | 117 | — | |
| 2023 | 206 | — | |
| 2024 | 271 | +31.6% | |
| 2025 | 236 | -12.9% |
* Well below Chester'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 50 building fires Chester departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 377 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 | Outside area, other | 80 | 21.2% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 62 | 16.4% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 44 | 11.7% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 36 | 9.5% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 30 | 8.0% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 13 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Other | 10 | 2.7% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 10 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 9 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 7 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 76 | 20.2% |
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 Chester mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 183 | 48.5% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 26 | 6.9% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 22 | 5.8% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 20 | 5.3% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 18 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 16 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 16 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 15 | 4.0% | |
| 9 | Match | 10 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 9 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 42 | 11.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Chester departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 97% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $280,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $150,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $120,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $56,700 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Chester sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,746 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 | 350 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 48.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 290 | 47.7 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 200 | 40.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Debris and open burning | 175 | 18.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 165 | 40.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Natural | 141 | 14.1 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 140 | 15.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 135 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 130 | 10.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 125 | 20.3 mi |
Top 9 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 Chester. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Chester.
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.