In 2025, fire departments serving Kinston responded to 52 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $8K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Kinston's departments reported 52 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 127 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Passenger vehicle fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 69% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
633 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $447K cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 206 | — | |
| 2022 | 194 | -5.8% | |
| 2023 | 105 | -45.9% | |
| 2024 | 76 | -27.6% | |
| 2025* | 52 | — |
* Well below Kinston'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 7 building fires Kinston departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 262 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 | 92 | 35.1% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 47 | 17.9% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 36 | 13.7% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 12 | 4.6% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 10 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 9 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 5 | 1.9% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 5 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 5 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 4 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 37 | 14.1% |
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 Kinston mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 191 | 72.9% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 10 | 3.8% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 8 | 3.1% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 7 | 2.7% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 7 | 2.7% | |
| 6 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 7 | 2.7% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 6 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 5 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 1.5% | |
| 10 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 4 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 13 | 5.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Kinston departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $8,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Kinston sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 61,745 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 24,600 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 21,331 | 40.3 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,400 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,533 | 47.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,327 | 49.3 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 1,300 | 41.2 mi | |
| 2013 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,157 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 944 | 49.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 815 | 49.5 mi | |
| 1992 | Debris and open burning | 650 | 41.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 610 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2013 | Arson/incendiarism | 491 | 41.0 mi |
Top 5 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 Kinston. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Kinston.
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.