In 2025, fire departments serving Hamilton responded to 71 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 54% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
469 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $16K cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 52 | — | |
| 2022 | 112 | — | |
| 2023 | 145 | +29.5% | |
| 2024 | 89 | -38.6% | |
| 2025 | 71 | -20.2% |
* Well below Hamilton'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 5 building fires Hamilton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 290 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 | 206 | 71.0% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 22 | 7.6% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 12 | 4.1% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 11 | 3.8% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 8 | 2.8% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 5 | 1.7% | |
| 7 | Other | 4 | 1.4% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 4 | 1.4% | |
| 9 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 4 | 1.4% | |
| 10 | Function area, other | 2 | 0.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 12 | 4.1% |
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 Hamilton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 257 | 88.6% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 5 | 1.7% | |
| 3 | Lightning | 5 | 1.7% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 1.4% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 1.0% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 1.0% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 2 | 0.7% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 0.7% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 0.3% | |
| 10 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 0.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 7 | 2.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Hamilton departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $500 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hamilton sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 16,529 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,003 | 33.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Smoking | 1,620 | 33.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,344 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,163 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,014 | 31.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 919 | 48.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 706 | 31.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 631 | 38.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 608 | 16.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 575 | 46.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 520 | 34.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 479 | 45.9 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 Hamilton. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Hamilton.
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.