In 2025, fire departments serving Kosciusko responded to 127 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $250K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 55% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
592 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $4.9M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 64 | — | |
| 2022* | 58 | — | |
| 2023 | 210 | — | |
| 2024 | 133 | -36.7% | |
| 2025 | 127 | -4.5% |
* Well below Kosciusko'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 17 building fires Kosciusko departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 218 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 | 49 | 22.5% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 33 | 15.1% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 18 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 17 | 7.8% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 16 | 7.3% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 9 | 4.1% | |
| 7 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 8 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 7 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 6 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 5 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 50 | 22.9% |
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 Kosciusko mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 129 | 59.2% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 20 | 9.2% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 16 | 7.3% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 10 | 4.6% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 7 | 3.2% | |
| 6 | Radiated heat from another fire | 7 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 6 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 1.4% | |
| 9 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 3 | 1.4% | |
| 10 | Heat source: other | 2 | 0.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 15 | 6.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Kosciusko departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 77% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $125,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $120,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $80,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $47,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Kosciusko sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 15,169 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 5,208 | 11.2 mi | |
| 2013 | Natural | 700 | 14.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 626 | 43.0 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 600 | 26.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 510 | 23.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 493 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 475 | 17.7 mi | |
| 1998 | Debris and open burning | 473 | 33.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 472 | 13.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 470 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 416 | 10.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 38.8 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 | 39090 | 592 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Kosciusko. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Kosciusko.
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.