In 2025, fire departments serving Greenville responded to 207 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.0M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Aircraft standby lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 65% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
780 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $7.6M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 87 | — | |
| 2022 | 117 | — | |
| 2023 | 188 | +60.7% | |
| 2024 | 181 | -3.7% | |
| 2025 | 207 | +14.4% |
* Well below Greenville'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 8 building fires Greenville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 246 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 | 89 | 36.2% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 28 | 11.4% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 27 | 11.0% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 16 | 6.5% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 9 | 3.7% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 7 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Other | 6 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 6 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 6 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 6 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 46 | 18.7% |
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 Greenville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 145 | 58.9% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 22 | 8.9% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 16 | 6.5% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 11 | 4.5% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 8 | 3.3% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 7 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 5 | 2.0% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 5 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 5 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Arcing | 4 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 18 | 7.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Greenville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 95% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $900,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $178,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $71,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $36,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Greenville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 9,416 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,000 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 745 | 43.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 678 | 18.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 565 | 19.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 560 | 42.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Fireworks | 438 | 34.0 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 408 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 393 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2013 | Arson/incendiarism | 362 | 27.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 350 | 32.9 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 320 | 25.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 320 | 49.8 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 | 36037 | 780 |
Six Alabama cities with population within ±25% of Greenville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Greenville.
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.