In 2025, fire departments serving Dillon responded to 128 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 51% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
612 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $2.5M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 111 | — | |
| 2022 | 151 | +36.0% | |
| 2023 | 129 | -14.6% | |
| 2024 | 93 | -27.9% | |
| 2025 | 128 | +37.6% |
For the 6 building fires Dillon departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 232 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 | 62 | 26.7% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 29 | 12.5% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 28 | 12.1% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 18 | 7.8% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 14 | 6.0% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 11 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 10 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 8 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 7 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Storage area, other | 4 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 41 | 17.7% |
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 Dillon mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 113 | 48.7% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 47 | 20.3% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 15 | 6.5% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 11 | 4.7% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 9 | 3.9% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 8 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 4 | 1.7% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 4 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 4 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Radiated heat from another fire | 4 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 13 | 5.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Dillon departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 79% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $50,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $50,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $40,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $30,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $30,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $25,000 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Dillon sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
14 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 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 40,526 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 19,130 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 5,438 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,358 | 38.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,181 | 38.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,164 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 969 | 40.6 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 950 | 46.7 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 41.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 795 | 33.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 765 | 26.4 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 730 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 697 | 39.5 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 South Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Dillon. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Dillon.
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.