In 2025, fire departments serving Cottondale responded to 72 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Passenger vehicle fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 56% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
277 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.6M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 16 | — | |
| 2022 | 52 | — | |
| 2023 | 63 | +21.2% | |
| 2024 | 74 | +17.5% | |
| 2025 | 72 | -2.7% |
* Well below Cottondale'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 6 building fires Cottondale departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 173 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 | 47 | 27.2% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 31 | 17.9% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 17 | 9.8% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 11 | 6.4% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 10 | 5.8% | |
| 6 | Other | 9 | 5.2% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 7 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 4 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 4 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 4 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 29 | 16.8% |
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 Cottondale mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 96 | 55.5% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 8 | 4.6% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 8 | 4.6% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 8 | 4.6% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 7 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 6 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 6 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 4 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 22 | 12.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Cottondale departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 83% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $50,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $25,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Cottondale sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 22,162 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 2,950 | 26.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,784 | 18.3 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,590 | 41.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,925 | 18.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,262 | 13.4 mi | |
| 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | 721 | 13.7 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 700 | 35.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 660 | 36.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 657 | 46.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 631 | 36.4 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 625 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 597 | 31.5 mi |
Top 8 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Alabama cities with population within ±25% of Cottondale. 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.