In 2025, fire departments serving De Kalb responded to 60 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $250K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Forest, woods or wildland fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 83% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
228 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.0M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 19 | — | |
| 2022* | 9 | — | |
| 2023 | 62 | — | |
| 2024 | 78 | +25.8% | |
| 2025 | 60 | -23.1% |
* Well below De Kalb'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 9 building fires De Kalb departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 58 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 | 21 | 36.2% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 9 | 15.5% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 9 | 15.5% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 5.2% | |
| 5 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 6 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Closet | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Outside area, other | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Corridor, mall | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 5 | 8.6% |
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 De Kalb mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 34 | 58.6% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 10 | 17.2% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 5 | 8.6% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 7 | Match | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 8 | Candle | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Lightning | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1 | 1.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by De Kalb departments in 2025. These 6 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $35,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $30,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. De Kalb sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 13,696 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 4,212 | 44.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 892 | 10.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 823 | 23.6 mi | |
| 2013 | Natural | 700 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 472 | 48.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 470 | 20.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 420 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 403 | 14.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 28.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 387 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 374 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2019 | Natural | 365 | 39.5 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 | 39328 | 228 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of De Kalb. 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.