In 2025, fire departments serving Greenville responded to 292 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $120K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 64% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,504 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $6.4M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 309 | — | |
| 2022* | 125 | — | |
| 2023 | 391 | — | |
| 2024 | 387 | -1.0% | |
| 2025 | 292 | -24.5% |
* 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 55 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 592 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 | 253 | 42.7% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 89 | 15.0% | |
| 3 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 30 | 5.1% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 30 | 5.1% | |
| 5 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 23 | 3.9% | |
| 6 | Wall surface: exterior | 15 | 2.5% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - 5+ persons; including barrack/dormitory | 11 | 1.9% | |
| 8 | Wall assembly | 11 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 10 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 9 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 111 | 18.8% |
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 | 463 | 78.2% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 32 | 5.4% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 24 | 4.1% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 8 | 1.4% | |
| 5 | Multiple heat sources including multiple ignitions | 8 | 1.4% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 7 | 1.2% | |
| 7 | Heat, spark from friction | 6 | 1.0% | |
| 8 | Molten, hot material | 6 | 1.0% | |
| 9 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 6 | 1.0% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 5 | 0.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 27 | 4.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Greenville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 62% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $120,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $65,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $50,000 | Outside rubbish, trash or waste 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. 11,366 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,669 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,414 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,013 | 34.2 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 755 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 606 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 468 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 300 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 295 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 279 | 21.6 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 265 | 21.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 210 | 16.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 188 | 43.1 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Greenville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 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.