In 2025, fire departments serving Lillington responded to 239 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K 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 54% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,405 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $2.2M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 234 | — | |
| 2022 | 337 | +44.0% | |
| 2023 | 309 | -8.3% | |
| 2024 | 286 | -7.4% | |
| 2025 | 239 | -16.4% |
For the 47 building fires Lillington departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 516 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 | Outside area, other | 154 | 29.8% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 73 | 14.1% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 48 | 9.3% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 41 | 7.9% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 32 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 30 | 5.8% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 18 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Other | 17 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 9 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 7 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 87 | 16.9% |
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 Lillington mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 214 | 41.5% | |
| 2 | Cigarette lighter | 36 | 7.0% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 32 | 6.2% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 31 | 6.0% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 30 | 5.8% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 23 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 22 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 18 | 3.5% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 17 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 14 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 79 | 15.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Lillington departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 97% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Special outside fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $8,292 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $8,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $8,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $3,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Lillington sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
8 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 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 19,151 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Natural | 5,438 | 38.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,358 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,181 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,164 | 36.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 969 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 750 | 15.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 697 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 586 | 49.5 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 550 | 21.3 mi | |
| 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 500 | 40.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 500 | 21.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Equipment and vehicle use | 454 | 48.5 mi |
Top 3 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 Lillington. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Lillington.
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.