In 2025, fire departments serving Clinton responded to 164 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $80K 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 48% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
862 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $353K cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 172 | — | |
| 2022 | 163 | -5.2% | |
| 2023 | 181 | +11.0% | |
| 2024 | 182 | +0.6% | |
| 2025 | 164 | -9.9% |
For the 31 building fires Clinton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 429 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 | 95 | 22.1% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 80 | 18.6% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 43 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 38 | 8.9% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 25 | 5.8% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 17 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 17 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Other | 11 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 9 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 7 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 87 | 20.3% |
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 Clinton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 276 | 64.3% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 19 | 4.4% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 19 | 4.4% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 19 | 4.4% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 15 | 3.5% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 8 | 1.9% | |
| 7 | Radiated heat from another fire | 8 | 1.9% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 7 | 1.6% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 6 | 1.4% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 6 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 46 | 10.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Clinton departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $600 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Clinton sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
5 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 | 2 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,395 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 310 | 31.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 15.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 190 | 32.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 165 | 41.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 152 | 32.4 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 33.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Natural | 141 | 33.4 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 140 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Equipment and vehicle use | 135 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 130 | 29.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 125 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 122 | 47.6 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 | 29325 | 862 |
Six South Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Clinton. 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.