In 2025, fire departments serving Gaffney responded to 568 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $400K 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 53% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,654 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $5.4M cumulative property loss. 5 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 343 | — | |
| 2022 | 454 | +32.4% | |
| 2023 | 609 | +34.1% | |
| 2024 | 680 | +11.7% | |
| 2025 | 568 | -16.5% |
For the 76 building fires Gaffney departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 793 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 165 | 20.8% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 94 | 11.9% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 89 | 11.2% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 73 | 9.2% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 56 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 52 | 6.6% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 45 | 5.7% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 25 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 14 | 1.8% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 13 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 167 | 21.1% |
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 Gaffney mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 376 | 47.4% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 89 | 11.2% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 54 | 6.8% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 48 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 29 | 3.7% | |
| 6 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 25 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 23 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Fireworks | 17 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 16 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 16 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 100 | 12.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Gaffney departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 82% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $28,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $25,000 | Dumpster or other outside trash receptacle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $24,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Gaffney sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
10 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 23,835 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 7,913 | 40.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,431 | 37.1 mi | |
| 2001 | Debris and open burning | 2,235 | 39.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,477 | 40.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 670 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 562 | 34.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 535 | 32.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 524 | 41.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 493 | 28.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 330 | 40.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 278 | 43.8 mi |
Top 7 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 Gaffney. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Gaffney.
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.