In 2025, fire departments serving Cottageville responded to 70 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $5K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 69% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
271 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $393K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 15 | — | |
| 2022 | 68 | — | |
| 2023 | 59 | -13.2% | |
| 2024 | 59 | +0.0% | |
| 2025 | 70 | +18.6% |
* Well below Cottageville'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 3 building fires Cottageville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 107 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 | 59 | 55.1% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 7 | 6.5% | |
| 3 | Exterior, exposed surface | 5 | 4.7% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 5 | 4.7% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 5 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Wall surface: exterior | 3 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Other | 2 | 1.9% | |
| 8 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 2 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 2 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 15 | 14.0% |
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 Cottageville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 79 | 73.8% | |
| 2 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 6 | 5.6% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 3.7% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 4 | 3.7% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 2.8% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 1.9% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 1.9% | |
| 8 | Match | 2 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Heat source: other | 1 | 0.9% | |
| 10 | Lightning | 1 | 0.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 3 | 2.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Cottageville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 97% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $5,000 | Trash or rubbish fire, contained | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $5,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $5,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $3,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Cottageville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 21,971 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,933 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,922 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 1,834 | 40.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,695 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,630 | 47.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,600 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 1,247 | 11.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,115 | 39.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 904 | 38.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 709 | 18.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 617 | 46.6 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 599 | 39.6 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 | 29435 | 271 |
Six South Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Cottageville. 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.