In 2025, fire departments serving Greer responded to 623 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $550K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 45% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,437 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $13.2M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 720 | — | |
| 2022 | 640 | -11.1% | |
| 2023 | 673 | +5.2% | |
| 2024 | 781 | +16.0% | |
| 2025 | 623 | -20.2% |
For the 76 building fires Greer departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,020 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 152 | 14.9% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 145 | 14.2% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 139 | 13.6% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 104 | 10.2% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 84 | 8.2% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 47 | 4.6% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 38 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 22 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 22 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 20 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 247 | 24.2% |
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 Greer mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 463 | 45.4% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 87 | 8.5% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 62 | 6.1% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 61 | 6.0% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 36 | 3.5% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 35 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 33 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 28 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Heat source: other | 25 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 20 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 170 | 16.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Greer departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 65% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $550,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $325,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $270,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $175,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $150,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $135,250 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Greer sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
15 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 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 6 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 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 | 29.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 7,913 | 35.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Debris and open burning | 2,235 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,477 | 31.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 740 | 47.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 524 | 33.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 493 | 43.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Recreation and ceremony | 468 | 33.9 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 407 | 41.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Recreation and ceremony | 351 | 22.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 330 | 31.4 mi |
Top 9 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 Greer. 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.