In 2025, fire departments serving McComb responded to 253 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $420K 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 62% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,569 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $11.7M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 272 | — | |
| 2022 | 213 | -21.7% | |
| 2023 | 466 | +118.8% | |
| 2024 | 365 | -21.7% | |
| 2025 | 253 | -30.7% |
For the 51 building fires McComb departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 458 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 | 204 | 44.5% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 41 | 9.0% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 37 | 8.1% | |
| 4 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 24 | 5.2% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 21 | 4.6% | |
| 6 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 12 | 2.6% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 11 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 10 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 10 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 8 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 80 | 17.5% |
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 McComb mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 315 | 68.8% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 35 | 7.6% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 27 | 5.9% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 14 | 3.1% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 11 | 2.4% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 7 | 1.5% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 6 | 1.3% | |
| 8 | Molten, hot material | 5 | 1.1% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 5 | 1.1% | |
| 10 | Lightning | 4 | 0.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 29 | 6.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by McComb departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 66% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $420,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $225,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $215,118 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $125,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $60,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. McComb sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
5 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 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 16,372 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 4,109 | 45.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,200 | 48.4 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 1,200 | 7.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 623 | 14.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 622 | 11.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 600 | 30.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 570 | 28.8 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 550 | 47.9 mi | |
| 1998 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 491 | 35.5 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 486 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 480 | 38.9 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 | 39648 | 1,569 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of McComb. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in McComb.
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.