In 2025, fire departments serving Dale responded to 11 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $2K 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 91% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
59 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $67.1M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 10 | — | |
| 2022 | 19 | +90.0% | |
| 2023* | 5 | — | |
| 2024 | 14 | — | |
| 2025 | 11 | -21.4% |
* Well below Dale'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 0 building fires Dale departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 10 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 4 | 40.0% | |
| 2 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 4 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 10.0% |
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 Dale mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 7 | 70.0% | |
| 2 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 10.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Dale departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,500 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,500 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,500 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $1,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Dale sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 13,367 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 | 1,247 | 39.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 1,245 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 1,076 | 49.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 1,016 | 35.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 789 | 44.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 761 | 35.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 709 | 30.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 571 | 23.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 480 | 32.9 mi | |
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 460 | 40.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 436 | 41.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 435 | 32.7 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 South Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Dale. 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.