In 2025, fire departments serving Greenwood responded to 50 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Passenger vehicle fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 64% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
202 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $1.8M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 23 | — | |
| 2022* | 17 | — | |
| 2023 | 58 | — | |
| 2024 | 54 | -6.9% | |
| 2025 | 50 | -7.4% |
* Well below Greenwood'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 7 building fires Greenwood departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 100 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 | 33 | 33.0% | |
| 2 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 11 | 11.0% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 11 | 11.0% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 8 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Storage area, other | 5 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 4 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 3 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 3 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 3 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 3 | 3.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 16 | 16.0% |
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 Greenwood mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 48 | 48.0% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 12 | 12.0% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 8 | 8.0% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 8 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 6 | 6.0% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 4 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Molten, hot material | 3 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 3 | 3.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Greenwood departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1 | Trash or rubbish fire, contained | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Greenwood sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 13,054 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 5,208 | 36.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 626 | 33.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 583 | 43.6 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 485 | 43.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 475 | 48.2 mi | |
| 1998 | Debris and open burning | 473 | 32.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 10.2 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 44.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 360 | 41.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 339 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2013 | Debris and open burning | 308 | 33.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 300 | 35.1 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 | 38930 | 202 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Greenwood. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Greenwood.
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.