In 2025, fire departments serving Fayetteville responded to 2,357 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $750K 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 48% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
14,847 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $42.8M cumulative property loss. 17 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2,683 | — | |
| 2022 | 3,645 | +35.9% | |
| 2023 | 3,576 | -1.9% | |
| 2024 | 2,586 | -27.7% | |
| 2025 | 2,357 | -8.9% |
For the 378 building fires Fayetteville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 3,808 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 | 522 | 13.7% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 522 | 13.7% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 383 | 10.1% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 377 | 9.9% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 289 | 7.6% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 230 | 6.0% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 132 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 101 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 94 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 92 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1,066 | 28.0% |
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 Fayetteville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 1,432 | 37.6% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 485 | 12.7% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 255 | 6.7% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 246 | 6.5% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 203 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 140 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 136 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 119 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 93 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 79 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 620 | 16.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Fayetteville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 32% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $750,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $396,868 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $262,100 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $225,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $225,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Fayetteville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
2,590 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 | 10 | |
| 10-19 | 34 | |
| 20-29 | 624 | |
| 30-39 | 781 | |
| 40-49 | 791 | |
| 50-59 | 257 | |
| 60-69 | 45 | |
| 70-79 | 12 | |
| 80+ | 8 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 21,365 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 | 22.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,358 | 31.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,181 | 28.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,164 | 18.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 969 | 31.7 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 900 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 795 | 32.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 750 | 9.1 mi | |
| 1992 | Debris and open burning | 716 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 697 | 29.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 669 | 32.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 586 | 32.1 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 Fayetteville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
5 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Fayetteville.
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.