In 2025, fire departments serving Half Moon responded to 10 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $20K 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 90% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
35 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $128K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 6 | — | |
| 2022 | 10 | +66.7% | |
| 2023* | 3 | — | |
| 2024 | 6 | — | |
| 2025 | 10 | +66.7% |
* Well below Half Moon'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 4 building fires Half Moon departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 9 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 | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 3 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 6 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 1 | 11.1% |
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 Half Moon mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 3 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Lightning | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 6 | Radiated heat from another fire | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 7 | Conducted heat from another fire | 1 | 11.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Half Moon departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $57 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Half Moon sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 105,032 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Natural | 31,140 | 23.2 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 24,600 | 19.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 21,331 | 26.1 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,400 | 21.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 2,727 | 28.6 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 2,660 | 29.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,084 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,533 | 20.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,327 | 27.2 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 1,300 | 25.2 mi | |
| 1993 | Natural | 1,216 | 25.3 mi | |
| 2013 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,157 | 25.6 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 | 28540 | 35 |
Six North Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Half Moon. 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.