Ross Fire in North Texas Reaches 100% Containment After 90,000-Acre Run
The Ross Fire near Palo Pinto, Texas burned about 90,000 acres and destroyed at least 167 structures before crews fully contained it on Sept. 16.
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In 2025, fire departments serving Huntsville responded to 446 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.5M 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 47% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,471 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $8.6M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 115 | — | |
| 2022 | 211 | — | |
| 2023 | 179 | -15.2% | |
| 2024 | 520 | +190.5% | |
| 2025 | 446 | -14.2% |
* Well below Huntsville'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 22 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 610 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 | 196 | 32.1% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 134 | 22.0% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 54 | 8.9% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 42 | 6.9% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 30 | 4.9% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 25 | 4.1% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 22 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Cooking area, kitchen | 20 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Other | 11 | 1.8% | |
| 10 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 7 | 1.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 69 | 11.3% |
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 Huntsville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 359 | 58.9% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 29 | 4.8% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 26 | 4.3% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 21 | 3.4% | |
| 5 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 18 | 3.0% | |
| 6 | Heat, spark from friction | 17 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 17 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 15 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 14 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Lightning | 11 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 83 | 13.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Huntsville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 79% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,500,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,000,000 | Outside equipment fire | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $150,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $100,000 | Fire in portable building, fixed location | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Huntsville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 84,083 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Equipment and vehicle use | 20,222 | 40.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 19,960 | 33.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,280 | 34.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 5,200 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 5,000 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 4,931 | 44.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Smoking | 3,500 | 44.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 3,000 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,047 | 14.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 34.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 1,500 | 33.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 1,369 | 36.0 mi |
Top 8 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Texas cities with population within ±25% of Huntsville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
5 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.