In 2025, fire departments serving Jacksonville responded to 607 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 52% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,229 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $7.0M cumulative property loss. 4 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 639 | — | |
| 2022 | 651 | +1.9% | |
| 2023 | 580 | -10.9% | |
| 2024 | 752 | +29.7% | |
| 2025 | 607 | -19.3% |
For the 136 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 954 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 | 136 | 14.3% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 125 | 13.1% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 104 | 10.9% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 98 | 10.3% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 73 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 69 | 7.2% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 57 | 6.0% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 26 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Other | 21 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 20 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 225 | 23.6% |
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 | 373 | 39.1% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 101 | 10.6% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 88 | 9.2% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 59 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 45 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 39 | 4.1% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 30 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 26 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Heat source: other | 24 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 23 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 146 | 15.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Jacksonville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 67% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $198,465 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $175,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $165,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $137,843 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $110,513 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $90,810 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Jacksonville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
38 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 | 2 | |
| 10-19 | 3 | |
| 20-29 | 5 | |
| 30-39 | 4 | |
| 40-49 | 7 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 104,712 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Natural | 31,140 | 20.3 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 24,600 | 19.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 21,331 | 25.6 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,400 | 19.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 2,727 | 24.8 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 2,660 | 25.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,084 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,533 | 17.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,327 | 23.3 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 1,300 | 27.9 mi | |
| 1993 | Natural | 1,216 | 23.1 mi | |
| 2013 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,157 | 20.9 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 North Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Jacksonville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 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.