In 2025, fire departments serving Hammond responded to 199 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Passenger vehicle fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 51% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,167 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $5.8M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 38 | — | |
| 2022* | 8 | — | |
| 2023 | 462 | — | |
| 2024 | 460 | -0.4% | |
| 2025 | 199 | -56.7% |
* Well below Hammond'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 21 building fires Hammond departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 772 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 | 229 | 29.7% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 120 | 15.5% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 72 | 9.3% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 60 | 7.8% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 58 | 7.5% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 46 | 6.0% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 43 | 5.6% | |
| 8 | Wall surface: exterior | 16 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 14 | 1.8% | |
| 10 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 9 | 1.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 105 | 13.6% |
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 Hammond mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 509 | 65.9% | |
| 2 | Match | 39 | 5.1% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 36 | 4.7% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 28 | 3.6% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 23 | 3.0% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 21 | 2.7% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 17 | 2.2% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 17 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 9 | 1.2% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 8 | 1.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 65 | 8.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Hammond departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 64% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $75,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $75,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $75,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $55,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hammond sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 15,508 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,922 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 1,500 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,200 | 11.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 893 | 34.3 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 800 | 30.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 725 | 29.5 mi | |
| 2008 | Debris and open burning | 641 | 34.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 600 | 35.4 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 570 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 550 | 30.1 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 520 | 38.3 mi | |
| 1998 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 25.4 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 Louisiana cities with population within ±25% of Hammond. 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.