In 2025, fire departments serving Mantachie responded to 53 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 93% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
273 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $1.0M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 13 | — | |
| 2022 | 36 | — | |
| 2023 | 96 | +166.7% | |
| 2024 | 75 | -21.9% | |
| 2025 | 53 | -29.3% |
* Well below Mantachie'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 9 building fires Mantachie departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 67 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 | 36 | 53.7% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 10 | 14.9% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 5 | 7.5% | |
| 4 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 5 | 7.5% | |
| 5 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 2 | 3.0% | |
| 6 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 2 | 3.0% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Shipping/receiving area; loading area, dock or bay | 1 | 1.5% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 1.5% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 2 | 3.0% |
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 Mantachie mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 42 | 62.7% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 6 | 9.0% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 4 | 6.0% | |
| 4 | Heat, spark from friction | 4 | 6.0% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Match | 2 | 3.0% | |
| 7 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 2 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 1.5% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 1.5% | |
| 10 | Chemical reaction | 1 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1 | 1.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Mantachie departments in 2025. These 6 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $2,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $1,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Mantachie sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 12,489 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Smoking | 1,620 | 14.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,344 | 32.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,005 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 1,000 | 41.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 608 | 19.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 537 | 43.3 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 459 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 453 | 25.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 425 | 41.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 34.0 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 382 | 30.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 366 | 29.9 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 | 38855 | 273 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Mantachie. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Mantachie.
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.