In 2025, fire departments serving DeRidder responded to 255 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K 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 45% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,796 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $5.9M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 347 | — | |
| 2022 | 455 | +31.1% | |
| 2023 | 362 | -20.4% | |
| 2024 | 377 | +4.1% | |
| 2025 | 255 | -32.4% |
For the 23 building fires DeRidder departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 588 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 102 | 17.3% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 73 | 12.4% | |
| 3 | Wildland, woods | 64 | 10.9% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 47 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 40 | 6.8% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 40 | 6.8% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 39 | 6.6% | |
| 8 | Other | 16 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 14 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 14 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 139 | 23.6% |
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 DeRidder mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 226 | 38.4% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 37 | 6.3% | |
| 3 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 35 | 6.0% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 33 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 30 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 26 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 21 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 20 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 20 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Heat source: other | 19 | 3.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 121 | 20.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by DeRidder departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 94% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $124,687 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $56,250 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $24,278 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $16,500 | Water vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. DeRidder sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
21 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 | 3 | |
| 20-29 | 8 | |
| 30-39 | 5 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 67,514 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 15,864 | 18.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,877 | 38.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 4,363 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,197 | 49.9 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,134 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 2,922 | 33.6 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 2,852 | 20.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 2,500 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 39.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,858 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,633 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,622 | 15.2 mi |
Top 3 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Louisiana cities with population within ±25% of DeRidder. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in DeRidder.
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.