In 2025, fire departments serving Leakesville responded to 56 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $3.0M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 82% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
122 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $3.7M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 11 | — | |
| 2022* | 3 | — | |
| 2023 | 16 | — | |
| 2024 | 36 | +125.0% | |
| 2025 | 56 | +55.6% |
* Well below Leakesville'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 6 building fires Leakesville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 30 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 | 15 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Other | 2 | 6.7% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 6.7% | |
| 4 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 2 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 2 | 6.7% | |
| 7 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Storage area, other | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Duct: hvac, cable, exhaust, heating, or AC | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1 | 3.3% |
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 Leakesville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 15 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 3 | 10.0% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 3 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Lightning | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1 | 3.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Leakesville departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $3,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $170,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Leakesville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 57,718 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,717 | 30.9 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,300 | 32.9 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,964 | 34.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Firearms and explosives use | 3,684 | 34.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,180 | 32.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,857 | 31.2 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,640 | 33.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,500 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,442 | 32.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,354 | 34.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,174 | 34.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Firearms and explosives use | 2,063 | 31.7 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 | 39451 | 122 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Leakesville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Leakesville.
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.