In 2025, fire departments serving Lenoir responded to 195 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $120K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Lenoir's departments reported 195 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 350 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 64% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,748 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $4.2M cumulative property loss. 9 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 340 | — | |
| 2022 | 540 | +58.8% | |
| 2023 | 486 | -10.0% | |
| 2024* | 187 | — | |
| 2025* | 195 | — |
* Well below Lenoir'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 35 building fires Lenoir departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 561 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 | 83 | 14.8% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 63 | 11.2% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 60 | 10.7% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 56 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 50 | 8.9% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 24 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 24 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 14 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Other | 12 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Structural area, other | 11 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 164 | 29.2% |
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 Lenoir mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 244 | 43.5% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 57 | 10.2% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 48 | 8.6% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 26 | 4.6% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 25 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 19 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 17 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 13 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 13 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 12 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 87 | 15.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Lenoir departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 92% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $120,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $70,000 | Camper or recreational vehicle (RV) fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $12,800 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $10,000 | Forest, woods or wildland fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $10,000 | Forest, woods or wildland fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $10,000 | Forest, woods or wildland fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Lenoir sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
24 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 | 3 | |
| 20-29 | 6 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 6 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 64,833 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Recreation and ceremony | 10,120 | 21.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 7,913 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,431 | 21.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 5,500 | 22.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 5,015 | 21.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,163 | 35.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 2,738 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 2,579 | 20.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 2,404 | 23.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Debris and open burning | 2,235 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,050 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Other causes | 2,005 | 22.8 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 Lenoir. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Lenoir.
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.