In 2025, fire departments serving LaGrange responded to 189 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. LaGrange's departments reported 189 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 418 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
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. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,090 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $7.2M cumulative property loss. 4 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 408 | — | |
| 2022 | 557 | +36.5% | |
| 2023 | 533 | -4.3% | |
| 2024 | 403 | -24.4% | |
| 2025* | 189 | — |
* Well below LaGrange'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 26 building fires LaGrange departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 477 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 105 | 22.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 77 | 16.1% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 60 | 12.6% | |
| 4 | Vehicle area, other | 24 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 20 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 18 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 15 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Wall surface: exterior | 12 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 11 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 10 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 125 | 26.2% |
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 LaGrange mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 219 | 45.9% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 60 | 12.6% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 40 | 8.4% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 38 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 19 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 14 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 11 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Lightning | 11 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 11 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 10 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 44 | 9.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by LaGrange departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 76% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $172,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $132,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $120,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $110,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $97,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $60,000 | Camper or recreational vehicle (RV) fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $50,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. LaGrange sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
10 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 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 6,815 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 522 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 416 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 37.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 46.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 356 | 35.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 352 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 348 | 36.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 341 | 11.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 305 | 34.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 31.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 250 | 43.4 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 235 | 45.5 mi |
Top 8 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Georgia cities with population within ±25% of LaGrange. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in LaGrange.
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.