In 2025, fire departments serving Folkston responded to 147 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1 building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 70% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
491 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $128K cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 58 | — | |
| 2022 | 82 | — | |
| 2023 | 118 | +43.9% | |
| 2024 | 86 | -27.1% | |
| 2025 | 147 | +70.9% |
* Well below Folkston'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 17 building fires Folkston departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 121 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 | 40 | 33.1% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 22 | 18.2% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 11 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 10 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Storage area, other | 5 | 4.1% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 4 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Duct: hvac, cable, exhaust, heating, or AC | 4 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 4 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Function area, other | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 17 | 14.0% |
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 Folkston mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 62 | 51.2% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 15 | 12.4% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 12 | 9.9% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 11 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 2.5% | |
| 6 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 3 | 2.5% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 7 | 5.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Folkston departments in 2025. These 7 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $1 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1 | Aircraft fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $1 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $1 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $1 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $1 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Folkston sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,272,252 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Natural | 309,200 | 22.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 191,474 | 15.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 152,515 | 26.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 124,110 | 20.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 123,014 | 31.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Natural | 69,060 | 34.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 68,361 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 34,936 | 37.8 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 34,660 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 28,985 | 25.2 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 20,100 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 19,198 | 39.5 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 | 31537 | 491 |
Six Georgia cities with population within ±25% of Folkston. 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.