In 2025, fire departments serving Huntersville responded to 202 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 50% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,125 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $2.1M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 304 | — | |
| 2022 | 327 | +7.6% | |
| 2023* | 36 | — | |
| 2024 | 256 | — | |
| 2025 | 202 | -21.1% |
* Well below Huntersville'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 6 building fires Huntersville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 334 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 | Outside area, other | 93 | 27.8% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 38 | 11.4% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 38 | 11.4% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 24 | 7.2% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 21 | 6.3% | |
| 6 | Other | 15 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 15 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 13 | 3.9% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 8 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 8 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 61 | 18.3% |
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 Huntersville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 158 | 47.3% | |
| 2 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 21 | 6.3% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 18 | 5.4% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 18 | 5.4% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 17 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 16 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 14 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 11 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 10 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 7 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 44 | 13.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Huntersville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 95% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $23,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Grass fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $3,500 | Fire in portable building, fixed location | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Huntersville sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 10,087 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,431 | 45.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 562 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 535 | 49.2 mi | |
| 1993 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 250 | 47.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 214 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 46.3 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 140 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Smoking | 136 | 42.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 120 | 46.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Natural | 116 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 116 | 28.6 mi |
Top 4 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 Huntersville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Huntersville.
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.