In 2025, fire departments serving Greensboro responded to 1,553 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 49% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
8,964 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $18.6M cumulative property loss. 8 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,428 | — | |
| 2022 | 2,499 | +75.0% | |
| 2023 | 1,096 | -56.1% | |
| 2024 | 2,388 | +117.9% | |
| 2025 | 1,553 | -35.0% |
For the 170 building fires Greensboro departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 2,864 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 | Outside area, other | 523 | 18.3% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 484 | 16.9% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 371 | 13.0% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 231 | 8.1% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 173 | 6.0% | |
| 6 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 109 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 101 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 94 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Wildland, woods | 79 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 52 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 647 | 22.6% |
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 Greensboro mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 1,050 | 36.7% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 332 | 11.6% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 203 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 174 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 159 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 137 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 120 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 90 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 87 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 83 | 2.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 429 | 15.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Greensboro departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 29% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $150,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $95,100 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $85,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Greensboro sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
85 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 | 9 | |
| 30-39 | 10 | |
| 40-49 | 10 | |
| 50-59 | 4 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 7,778 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Natural | 3,696 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 675 | 40.3 mi | |
| 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 500 | 36.2 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 363 | 34.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 289 | 33.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 214 | 33.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | 175 | 45.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 166 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 161 | 19.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 42.0 mi | |
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 140 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 125 | 46.1 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 North Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Greensboro. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
5 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Greensboro.
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.