In 2025, fire departments serving Flora responded to 55 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 73% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
256 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.3M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 30 | — | |
| 2022* | 20 | — | |
| 2023 | 63 | — | |
| 2024 | 88 | +39.7% | |
| 2025 | 55 | -37.5% |
* Well below Flora'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 3 building fires Flora departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 68 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 | 42 | 61.8% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 6 | 8.8% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 3 | 4.4% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 2.9% | |
| 5 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 2 | 2.9% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 1.5% | |
| 7 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 1.5% | |
| 8 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 1.5% | |
| 9 | Closet | 1 | 1.5% | |
| 10 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 1 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 8 | 11.8% |
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 Flora mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 49 | 72.1% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 3 | 4.4% | |
| 3 | Match | 3 | 4.4% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 2 | 2.9% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 2.9% | |
| 6 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 1.5% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 1.5% | |
| 9 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 1 | 1.5% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 1 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 3 | 4.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Flora departments in 2025. These 7 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Grass fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $1 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $1 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $1 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $1 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Flora sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 12,065 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 4,152 | 18.7 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 600 | 34.3 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 550 | 45.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 510 | 33.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 493 | 24.8 mi | |
| 1998 | Debris and open burning | 473 | 35.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 35.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 416 | 45.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 39.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 315 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 306 | 49.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 300 | 26.8 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 | 39071 | 256 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Flora. 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.