In 2025, fire departments serving Greenville responded to 2,047 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $2.7M 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 48% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
10,812 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $38.2M cumulative property loss. 14 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,968 | — | |
| 2022 | 2,094 | +6.4% | |
| 2023 | 2,283 | +9.0% | |
| 2024 | 2,420 | +6.0% | |
| 2025 | 2,047 | -15.4% |
For the 230 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 3,011 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 | 524 | 17.4% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 408 | 13.6% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 287 | 9.5% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 268 | 8.9% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 242 | 8.0% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 182 | 6.0% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 125 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 81 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Other | 59 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 48 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 787 | 26.1% |
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 Greenville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 1,657 | 55.0% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 219 | 7.3% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 191 | 6.3% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 129 | 4.3% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 113 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 82 | 2.7% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 74 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 69 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 65 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 51 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 361 | 12.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Greenville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 55% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,700,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,500,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $800,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $495,986 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $396,187 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Greenville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
69 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 | 4 | |
| 10-19 | 3 | |
| 20-29 | 14 | |
| 30-39 | 16 | |
| 40-49 | 7 | |
| 50-59 | 6 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 3 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 29,284 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 10,623 | 25.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 7,913 | 43.5 mi | |
| 2001 | Debris and open burning | 2,235 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,477 | 39.0 mi | |
| 1993 | Natural | 1,050 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 524 | 41.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Recreation and ceremony | 468 | 29.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 407 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Recreation and ceremony | 351 | 22.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 330 | 38.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | 325 | 37.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 49.7 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 South Carolina 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.