In 2025, fire departments serving Jacksonville responded to 456 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $25.0M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 50% of all calls.
Mar peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,227 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $33.6M cumulative property loss. 6 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 435 | — | |
| 2022 | 436 | +0.2% | |
| 2023 | 454 | +4.1% | |
| 2024 | 446 | -1.8% | |
| 2025 | 456 | +2.2% |
For the 60 building fires Jacksonville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 809 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 | 153 | 18.9% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 137 | 16.9% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 89 | 11.0% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 55 | 6.8% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 38 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 36 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 28 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 27 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 24 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 19 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 203 | 25.1% |
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 Jacksonville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 490 | 60.6% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 50 | 6.2% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 38 | 4.7% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 31 | 3.8% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 28 | 3.5% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 22 | 2.7% | |
| 7 | Fireworks | 19 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 17 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 14 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 12 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 88 | 10.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Jacksonville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 96% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $25,000,050 | Building fires | Catastrophic | Investigated |
| 2 | $250,000 | Outside storage fire | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $176,600 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $175,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Jacksonville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
10 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 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 10,571 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 9.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,401 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 636 | 13.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 540 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 524 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 486 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 413 | 35.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 367 | 11.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 343 | 28.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 336 | 33.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 330 | 35.5 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 Arkansas cities with population within ±25% of Jacksonville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Jacksonville.
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.