In 2025, fire departments serving Little Rock responded to 2,983 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $533K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Trash or rubbish fire, contained lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 41% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
15,289 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $54.5M cumulative property loss. 19 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2,859 | — | |
| 2022 | 3,181 | +11.3% | |
| 2023 | 2,739 | -13.9% | |
| 2024 | 3,527 | +28.8% | |
| 2025 | 2,983 | -15.4% |
For the 182 building fires Little Rock departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 5,915 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 | 1,159 | 19.6% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 1,067 | 18.0% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 545 | 9.2% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 423 | 7.2% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 397 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 308 | 5.2% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 210 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Other | 152 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 137 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 132 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1,385 | 23.4% |
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 Little Rock mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 4,002 | 67.7% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 237 | 4.0% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 219 | 3.7% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 190 | 3.2% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 189 | 3.2% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 156 | 2.6% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 127 | 2.1% | |
| 8 | Match | 102 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 95 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 86 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 512 | 8.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Little Rock departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 26% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $532,605 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $344,680 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $325,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $261,650 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $250,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $200,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Little Rock sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
110 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 | 7 | |
| 10-19 | 5 | |
| 20-29 | 21 | |
| 30-39 | 32 | |
| 40-49 | 21 | |
| 50-59 | 9 | |
| 60-69 | 9 | |
| 70-79 | 4 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 19,676 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Natural | 5,091 | 39.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,067 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 11.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,401 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 954 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 825 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 705 | 41.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Natural | 695 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 636 | 18.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 540 | 34.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 486 | 25.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 413 | 24.0 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
4 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Little Rock.
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.