In 2025, fire departments serving Florence responded to 574 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $300K 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 51% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,838 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $20.4M cumulative property loss. 9 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 846 | — | |
| 2022 | 833 | -1.5% | |
| 2023 | 775 | -7.0% | |
| 2024 | 810 | +4.5% | |
| 2025 | 574 | -29.1% |
For the 105 building fires Florence departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,936 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 | 344 | 17.8% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 312 | 16.1% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 229 | 11.8% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 161 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 157 | 8.1% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 124 | 6.4% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 91 | 4.7% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 51 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 36 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 34 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 397 | 20.5% |
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 Florence mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 1,052 | 54.3% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 142 | 7.3% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 121 | 6.2% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 113 | 5.8% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 85 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 63 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 38 | 2.0% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 35 | 1.8% | |
| 9 | Molten, hot material | 29 | 1.5% | |
| 10 | Radiated heat from another fire | 29 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 229 | 11.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Florence departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 40% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $246,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Florence sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
26 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 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 7 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 19,857 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,684 | 47.8 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,150 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,200 | 43.7 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 950 | 28.2 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 862 | 42.1 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 33.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 765 | 41.5 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 730 | 24.9 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 541 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Debris and open burning | 528 | 37.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 525 | 44.4 mi | |
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 510 | 43.3 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 South Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Florence. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Florence.
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.