In 2025, fire departments serving Latta responded to 55 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $210K 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 58% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
383 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $4.0M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 155 | — | |
| 2022 | 102 | -34.2% | |
| 2023* | 28 | — | |
| 2024* | 43 | — | |
| 2025 | 55 | — |
* Well below Latta'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 12 building fires Latta departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 237 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 | 109 | 46.0% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 28 | 11.8% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 26 | 11.0% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 22 | 9.3% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 9 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 8 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 4 | 1.7% | |
| 8 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 4 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Other | 3 | 1.3% | |
| 10 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 3 | 1.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 21 | 8.9% |
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 Latta mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 151 | 63.7% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 23 | 9.7% | |
| 3 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 10 | 4.2% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 8 | 3.4% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 6 | 2.5% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 5 | 2.1% | |
| 7 | Heat, spark from friction | 5 | 2.1% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 4 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 4 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 4 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 17 | 7.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Latta departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 77% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $210,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Forest, woods or wildland fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $80,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $40,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $30,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $25,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Latta sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 36,789 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 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 1,648 | 49.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,358 | 43.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,181 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Fireworks | 1,155 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 969 | 45.8 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 950 | 43.4 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 40.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 795 | 40.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 765 | 25.3 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 730 | 38.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 697 | 44.8 mi |
Top 4 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 Latta. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Latta.
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.