In 2025, fire departments serving Gloster responded to 14 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $20K 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 78% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
65 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $861K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 4 | — | |
| 2022* | 1 | — | |
| 2023 | 16 | — | |
| 2024 | 30 | +87.5% | |
| 2025 | 14 | -53.3% |
* Well below Gloster'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 2 building fires Gloster departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 22 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 | 14 | 63.6% | |
| 2 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 4 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Wall assembly | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 4.5% |
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 Gloster mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 18 | 81.8% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 4 | Backfire from internal combustion engine | 1 | 4.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Gloster departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Gloster sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 17,883 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 4,110 | 23.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 4,109 | 35.3 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 1,200 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 623 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 622 | 37.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 570 | 3.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 491 | 6.6 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 486 | 49.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 453 | 11.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 450 | 47.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 408 | 10.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 38.0 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 | 39638 | 65 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Gloster. 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.