In 2025, fire departments serving Greenwood responded to 648 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100.0M 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 50% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,890 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $105.0M cumulative property loss. 8 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 555 | — | |
| 2022 | 629 | +13.3% | |
| 2023 | 496 | -21.1% | |
| 2024 | 562 | +13.3% | |
| 2025 | 648 | +15.3% |
For the 104 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 1,004 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 | 217 | 21.6% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 158 | 15.7% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 101 | 10.1% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 87 | 8.7% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 78 | 7.8% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 48 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 31 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 31 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Other | 23 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 21 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 209 | 20.8% |
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 Greenwood mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 470 | 46.8% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 81 | 8.1% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 70 | 7.0% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 69 | 6.9% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 45 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 44 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 40 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 33 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Fireworks | 19 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 18 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 115 | 11.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Greenwood departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 99% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000,000 | Garbage dump or sanitary landfill fire | Catastrophic | Investigated |
| 2 | $163,875 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $124,315 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $75,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $70,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $70,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $70,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Greenwood sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
23 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 6 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 5 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,663 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | 325 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 310 | 16.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 17.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 250 | 48.1 mi | |
| 1997 | Natural | 234 | 43.7 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 225 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 225 | 45.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 220 | 44.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 202 | 42.3 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 200 | 46.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 190 | 42.7 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 Greenwood. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.