In 2025, fire departments serving Huntsville responded to 1,149 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.0M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 43% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
5,857 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $130.5M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 857 | — | |
| 2022 | 1,273 | +48.5% | |
| 2023 | 1,293 | +1.6% | |
| 2024 | 1,285 | -0.6% | |
| 2025 | 1,149 | -10.6% |
For the 98 building fires Huntsville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 2,039 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 | 365 | 17.9% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 278 | 13.6% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 247 | 12.1% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 231 | 11.3% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 87 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 82 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Other | 65 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 57 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 52 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 46 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 529 | 25.9% |
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 Huntsville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 1,016 | 49.8% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 146 | 7.2% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 142 | 7.0% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 141 | 6.9% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 137 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 71 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 67 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 58 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 53 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 37 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 171 | 8.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Huntsville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 60% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,000,000 | Fire, other | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $200,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $178,700 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $150,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $125,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $110,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Huntsville sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
18 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 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 4 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 10,408 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,163 | 36.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 1,010 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 919 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 833 | 47.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 700 | 38.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 510 | 27.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 500 | 49.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 479 | 41.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 385 | 20.9 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 330 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | 327 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 300 | 45.8 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 Alabama cities with population within ±25% of Huntsville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Huntsville.
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.