In 2025, fire departments serving Jonestown responded to 15 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $90K 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 100% of all calls.
Mar peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
56 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $466K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 17 | — | |
| 2022* | 2 | — | |
| 2023 | 12 | — | |
| 2024 | 10 | -16.7% | |
| 2025 | 15 | +50.0% |
* Well below Jonestown'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 8 building fires Jonestown departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 34 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 | 18 | 52.9% | |
| 2 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 5 | 14.7% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 8.8% | |
| 4 | Roof surface: exterior | 2 | 5.9% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 2.9% |
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 Jonestown mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 29 | 85.3% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 2 | 5.9% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 2.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Jonestown departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $90,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $21,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $12,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Jonestown sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 9,304 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,200 | 43.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 750 | 27.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 720 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 637 | 25.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 583 | 40.7 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 485 | 33.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 328 | 20.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 320 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 319 | 41.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 310 | 37.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 300 | 47.4 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 | 38639 | 56 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Jonestown. 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.