In 2025, fire departments serving Elon responded to 35 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 88% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
150 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $124K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 15 | — | |
| 2022* | 13 | — | |
| 2023 | 50 | — | |
| 2024 | 37 | -26.0% | |
| 2025 | 35 | -5.4% |
* Well below Elon'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 6 building fires Elon departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 16 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 18.8% | |
| 2 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 3 | 18.8% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 6 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 9 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 6.2% |
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 Elon mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 6 | 37.5% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 6.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Elon departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Elon sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,295 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 500 | 30.5 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 456 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Recreation and ceremony | 339 | 45.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 330 | 46.8 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 300 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 289 | 16.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 214 | 44.7 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 180 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 161 | 21.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 137 | 36.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 115 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 115 | 39.8 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 | 27244 | 150 |
Six North Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Elon. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Elon.
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.