In 2025, fire departments serving Itta Bena responded to 10 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 90% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
27 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 1 | — | |
| 2022* | 1 | — | |
| 2023 | 11 | — | |
| 2024 | 4 | -63.6% | |
| 2025 | 10 | +150.0% |
* Well below Itta Bena'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 1 building fires Itta Bena departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 8 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 | 6 | 75.0% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 25.0% |
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 Itta Bena mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 6 | 75.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 12.5% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Itta Bena sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 12,619 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 5,208 | 41.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 626 | 40.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 583 | 48.4 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 485 | 47.6 mi | |
| 1998 | Debris and open burning | 473 | 32.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 17.4 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 49.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 360 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 339 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2013 | Debris and open burning | 308 | 40.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 300 | 40.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 279 | 32.6 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 38941 | 27 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Itta Bena. 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.