In 2025, fire departments serving Hartsville responded to 296 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $441K 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 50% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,990 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $5.7M cumulative property loss. 7 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 422 | — | |
| 2022 | 498 | +18.0% | |
| 2023 | 375 | -24.7% | |
| 2024 | 399 | +6.4% | |
| 2025 | 296 | -25.8% |
For the 52 building fires Hartsville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,123 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 | 430 | 38.3% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 172 | 15.3% | |
| 3 | Wildland, woods | 80 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 75 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 61 | 5.4% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 60 | 5.3% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 29 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 24 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 23 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Other | 15 | 1.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 154 | 13.7% |
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 Hartsville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 794 | 70.7% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 46 | 4.1% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 39 | 3.5% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 37 | 3.3% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 22 | 2.0% | |
| 6 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 21 | 1.9% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 20 | 1.8% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 16 | 1.4% | |
| 9 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 16 | 1.4% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 14 | 1.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 98 | 8.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Hartsville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 60% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $440,800 | Special outside fire, other | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $170,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $90,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hartsville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
13 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 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 17,158 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,684 | 46.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,484 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 985 | 39.7 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 950 | 7.0 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 16.7 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 730 | 4.2 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 541 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 500 | 36.5 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 22.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 438 | 42.7 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 420 | 35.7 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 404 | 26.9 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 South Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Hartsville. 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.