In 2025, fire departments serving Hilton Head Island responded to 391 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $992K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Authorized controlled burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 75% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,418 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $12.0M cumulative property loss. 4 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 292 | — | |
| 2022 | 588 | +101.4% | |
| 2023 | 573 | -2.6% | |
| 2024 | 574 | +0.2% | |
| 2025 | 391 | -31.9% |
For the 27 building fires Hilton Head Island departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 403 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 52 | 12.9% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 49 | 12.2% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 40 | 9.9% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 37 | 9.2% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 22 | 5.5% | |
| 6 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 19 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 17 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 16 | 4.0% | |
| 9 | Undetermined | 14 | 3.5% | |
| 10 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 13 | 3.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 124 | 30.8% |
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 Hilton Head Island mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 127 | 31.5% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 46 | 11.4% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 43 | 10.7% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 30 | 7.4% | |
| 5 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 24 | 6.0% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 15 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 15 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Lightning | 15 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 11 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 10 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 67 | 16.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Hilton Head Island departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 95% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $991,650 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $800,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $510,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $62,370 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $35,398 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hilton Head Island sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
19 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 12,891 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 1,245 | 19.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 1,076 | 24.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 1,016 | 19.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 916 | 42.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 827 | 48.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 789 | 47.2 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 761 | 18.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 663 | 48.2 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 571 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 487 | 49.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 480 | 9.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 435 | 19.9 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 South Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Hilton Head Island. 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.