In 2025, fire departments serving Dadeville responded to 88 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K 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 62% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
467 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $1.4M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 43 | — | |
| 2022 | 62 | — | |
| 2023 | 149 | +140.3% | |
| 2024 | 125 | -16.1% | |
| 2025 | 88 | -29.6% |
* Well below Dadeville'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 15 building fires Dadeville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 146 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 | 38 | 26.0% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 31 | 21.2% | |
| 3 | Other | 15 | 10.3% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 11 | 7.5% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 8 | 5.5% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 7 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 4 | 2.7% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 24 | 16.4% |
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 Dadeville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 82 | 56.2% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 13 | 8.9% | |
| 3 | Cigarette lighter | 9 | 6.2% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 8 | 5.5% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 7 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 7 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 6 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 6 | 4.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Dadeville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 96% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $95,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $49,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $15,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Dadeville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 19,283 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,108 | 39.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,229 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 1,800 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,066 | 30.9 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,005 | 36.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 988 | 38.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 932 | 39.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 615 | 37.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 570 | 35.5 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 504 | 40.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 502 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 481 | 23.0 mi |
Top 4 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 Dadeville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
5 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Dadeville.
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.