In 2025, fire departments serving Mathiston responded to 35 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Aircraft standby lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 71% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
138 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $744K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 20 | — | |
| 2022* | 7 | — | |
| 2023 | 36 | — | |
| 2024 | 40 | +11.1% | |
| 2025 | 35 | -12.5% |
* Well below Mathiston'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 0 building fires Mathiston departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 43 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 | 14 | 32.6% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 7 | 16.3% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 7 | 16.3% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 6 | 14.0% | |
| 5 | Other | 2 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 2 | 4.7% | |
| 8 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 2.3% |
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 Mathiston mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 17 | 39.5% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 7.0% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 7.0% | |
| 4 | Heat, spark from friction | 3 | 7.0% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 7.0% | |
| 6 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 3 | 7.0% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 4.7% | |
| 8 | Match | 2 | 4.7% | |
| 9 | Heat source: other | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 5 | 11.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Mathiston departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Grass fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Mathiston sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 14,474 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 5,208 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2013 | Natural | 700 | 33.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 626 | 31.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 475 | 25.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 472 | 31.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 470 | 40.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 450 | 8.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 47.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 390 | 5.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 387 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 374 | 24.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 366 | 37.0 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 | 39752 | 138 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Mathiston. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.