In 2025, fire departments serving Gurley responded to 43 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 70% of all calls.
Mar peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
275 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $5K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 20 | — | |
| 2022 | 65 | — | |
| 2023 | 62 | -4.6% | |
| 2024 | 85 | +37.1% | |
| 2025 | 43 | -49.4% |
* Well below Gurley'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 Gurley departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 152 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 | 40 | 26.3% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 37 | 24.3% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 17 | 11.2% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 8 | 5.3% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 7 | 4.6% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 5 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Function area, other | 4 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 4 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Wildland, woods | 4 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Storage area, other | 3 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 23 | 15.1% |
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 Gurley mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 61 | 40.1% | |
| 2 | Match | 21 | 13.8% | |
| 3 | Cigarette lighter | 12 | 7.9% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 10 | 6.6% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 10 | 6.6% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 9 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 5 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 5 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 5 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 11 | 7.2% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Gurley sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 21,872 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 | 2,083 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,636 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 1,448 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,167 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 1,010 | 30.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 900 | 47.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 856 | 39.7 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 833 | 33.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 787 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 735 | 46.7 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 Alabama cities with population within ±25% of Gurley. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Gurley.
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.