In 2025, fire departments serving Columbia responded to 2,184 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 59% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
12,684 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $44.1M cumulative property loss. 10 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2,707 | — | |
| 2022 | 2,476 | -8.5% | |
| 2023 | 2,268 | -8.4% | |
| 2024 | 3,049 | +34.4% | |
| 2025 | 2,184 | -28.4% |
For the 253 building fires Columbia departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 5,529 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 | 988 | 17.9% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 746 | 13.5% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 611 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 605 | 10.9% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 338 | 6.1% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 278 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 204 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 163 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Other | 158 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 141 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1,297 | 23.5% |
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 Columbia mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 3,020 | 54.6% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 396 | 7.2% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 269 | 4.9% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 267 | 4.8% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 240 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 230 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 144 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 125 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 123 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 95 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 620 | 11.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Columbia departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 36% 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 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $480,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $437,600 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $354,900 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Columbia sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
61 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 | 20 | |
| 30-39 | 16 | |
| 40-49 | 5 | |
| 50-59 | 5 | |
| 60-69 | 5 | |
| 70-79 | 4 | |
| 80+ | 4 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 14,377 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,684 | 30.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,484 | 4.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 985 | 12.9 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 950 | 48.7 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 650 | 35.7 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 44.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 382 | 34.4 mi | |
| 1998 | Natural | 368 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 50.0 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 350 | 27.3 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 332 | 47.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 316 | 46.8 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 Columbia. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Columbia.
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.