In 2025, fire departments serving Flowood responded to 59 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $15K 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 71% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
330 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $796K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 66 | — | |
| 2022* | 19 | — | |
| 2023 | 100 | — | |
| 2024 | 86 | -14.0% | |
| 2025 | 59 | -31.4% |
* Well below Flowood'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 1 building fires Flowood departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 98 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 30 | 30.6% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 23 | 23.5% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 7 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 7 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 4 | 4.1% | |
| 6 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 4 | 4.1% | |
| 7 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 3 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 3 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Outside area, other | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 13 | 13.3% |
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 Flowood mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 39 | 39.8% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 17 | 17.3% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 10 | 10.2% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 6 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 6 | 6.1% | |
| 6 | Heat, spark from friction | 5 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 5 | 5.1% | |
| 8 | Molten, hot material | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 1.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 5 | 5.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Flowood departments in 2025. These 7 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $3,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $3,000 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $3,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $2,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $2,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $1,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Flowood sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 13,723 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 | 23.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 1,001 | 41.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 682 | 31.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 600 | 31.8 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 550 | 31.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 510 | 33.7 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 493 | 10.0 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 486 | 47.2 mi | |
| 1998 | Debris and open burning | 473 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 15.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 416 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 19.6 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 | 39232 | 330 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Flowood. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Flowood.
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.