In 2025, fire departments serving Chickasaw responded to 40 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $70K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Trash or rubbish fire, contained lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 63% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
61 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $75K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 2 | — | |
| 2022* | 4 | — | |
| 2023* | 1 | — | |
| 2024 | 14 | — | |
| 2025 | 40 | +185.7% |
* Well below Chickasaw'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 5 building fires Chickasaw departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 13 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 23.1% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 7.7% |
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 Chickasaw mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 10 | 76.9% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 3 | Fireworks | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Candle | 1 | 7.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Chickasaw departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $70,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $2 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $1 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $1 | Grass fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $1 | Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $1 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $1 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Chickasaw sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 40,119 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,394 | 27.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 4,248 | 34.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,500 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 2,100 | 27.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,846 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 1,600 | 40.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 1,594 | 29.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 1,555 | 40.6 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,500 | 31.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,400 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 1,306 | 37.9 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 1,280 | 36.3 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 36611 | 61 |
Six Alabama cities with population within ±25% of Chickasaw. 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.