In 2025, fire departments serving Dunn responded to 196 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 56% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,449 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $6.2M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 328 | — | |
| 2022 | 387 | +18.0% | |
| 2023 | 324 | -16.3% | |
| 2024 | 214 | -34.0% | |
| 2025 | 196 | -8.4% |
For the 54 building fires Dunn departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 635 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 | 130 | 20.5% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 101 | 15.9% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 85 | 13.4% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 72 | 11.3% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 36 | 5.7% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 33 | 5.2% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 26 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 12 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 12 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 11 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 117 | 18.4% |
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 Dunn mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 348 | 54.8% | |
| 2 | Cigarette lighter | 49 | 7.7% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 39 | 6.1% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 22 | 3.5% | |
| 5 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 21 | 3.3% | |
| 6 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 19 | 3.0% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 16 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 14 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 14 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Arcing | 13 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 80 | 12.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Dunn departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 66% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Dunn sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
10 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 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 16,043 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Natural | 5,438 | 32.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,164 | 31.8 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 900 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 795 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 750 | 21.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Debris and open burning | 716 | 46.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 550 | 15.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 500 | 29.8 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 410 | 48.9 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 33.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 400 | 18.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 364 | 49.3 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six North Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Dunn. 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.