In 2025, fire departments serving Hickory responded to 444 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 47% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,957 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $10.0M cumulative property loss. 5 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 686 | — | |
| 2022 | 568 | -17.2% | |
| 2023 | 716 | +26.1% | |
| 2024 | 543 | -24.2% | |
| 2025 | 444 | -18.2% |
For the 44 building fires Hickory departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 745 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 133 | 17.9% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 108 | 14.5% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 62 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 55 | 7.4% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 43 | 5.8% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 38 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Other | 27 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 23 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 21 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 20 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 215 | 28.9% |
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 Hickory mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 190 | 25.5% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 91 | 12.2% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 73 | 9.8% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 59 | 7.9% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 47 | 6.3% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 43 | 5.8% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 35 | 4.7% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 31 | 4.2% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 26 | 3.5% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 21 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 129 | 17.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Hickory departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 75% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $130,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $88,600 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $84,200 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hickory sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
27 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 | 2 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 6 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 51,610 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Recreation and ceremony | 10,120 | 35.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,431 | 19.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 5,500 | 32.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 5,015 | 32.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,163 | 43.8 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 2,579 | 33.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 2,404 | 34.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Debris and open burning | 2,235 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Other causes | 2,005 | 35.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 1,760 | 37.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,450 | 31.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 1,268 | 37.6 mi |
Top 7 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six North Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Hickory. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Hickory.
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.