In 2025, fire departments serving Decatur responded to 297 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Cooking fire, confined to container lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 47% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,890 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $3.7M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 339 | — | |
| 2022 | 415 | +22.4% | |
| 2023 | 444 | +7.0% | |
| 2024 | 395 | -11.0% | |
| 2025 | 297 | -24.8% |
For the 31 building fires Decatur departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,236 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 | Outside area, other | 262 | 21.2% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 132 | 10.7% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 128 | 10.4% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 126 | 10.2% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 117 | 9.5% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 56 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 46 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Other | 28 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 27 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 25 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 289 | 23.4% |
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 Decatur mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 679 | 54.9% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 75 | 6.1% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 74 | 6.0% | |
| 4 | Match | 54 | 4.4% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 45 | 3.6% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 45 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 42 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 38 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 36 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 35 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 113 | 9.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Decatur departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 58% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $50,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $25,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $25,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $20,000 | Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Decatur sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
5 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 13,779 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,003 | 30.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,163 | 15.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,014 | 32.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 919 | 28.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 890 | 41.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 706 | 35.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 575 | 39.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 520 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 510 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 479 | 22.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 460 | 37.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 450 | 46.9 mi |
Top 6 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 Decatur. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Decatur.
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.