In 2025, fire departments serving Johnsonville responded to 77 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 57% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
494 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $228K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 78 | — | |
| 2022 | 139 | +78.2% | |
| 2023 | 80 | -42.4% | |
| 2024 | 120 | +50.0% | |
| 2025 | 77 | -35.8% |
For the 10 building fires Johnsonville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 249 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 81 | 32.5% | |
| 2 | Wildland, woods | 35 | 14.1% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 22 | 8.8% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 20 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 13 | 5.2% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 8 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Wall surface: exterior | 8 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Processing/manufacturing area, workroom | 5 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Exterior, exposed surface | 5 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 5 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 47 | 18.9% |
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 Johnsonville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 94 | 37.8% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 35 | 14.1% | |
| 3 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 30 | 12.0% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 18 | 7.2% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 11 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 8 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 7 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 7 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Match | 6 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Radiated heat from another fire | 6 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 27 | 10.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Johnsonville departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Johnsonville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
9 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 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 47,833 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 19,130 | 30.0 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,150 | 16.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,466 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,922 | 41.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,911 | 38.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,695 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 1,648 | 27.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,600 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,600 | 42.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,200 | 40.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Fireworks | 1,155 | 30.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,115 | 49.5 mi |
Top 6 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six South Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Johnsonville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Johnsonville.
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.