In 2025, fire departments serving Mendenhall responded to 75 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $63K 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 65% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
302 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $938K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 16 | — | |
| 2022* | 10 | — | |
| 2023 | 124 | — | |
| 2024 | 77 | -37.9% | |
| 2025 | 75 | -2.6% |
* Well below Mendenhall'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 8 building fires Mendenhall departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 71 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 | 23 | 32.4% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 9 | 12.7% | |
| 3 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 5 | 7.0% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 5 | 7.0% | |
| 5 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 4 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 4 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 3 | 4.2% | |
| 9 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 3 | 4.2% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 3 | 4.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 9 | 12.7% |
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 Mendenhall mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 35 | 49.3% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 12 | 16.9% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 5.6% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 4 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Molten, hot material | 3 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 2 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 2 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 3 | 4.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Mendenhall departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $62,680 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,000 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Mendenhall sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 17,975 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 4,212 | 45.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 4,152 | 43.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 1,001 | 13.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 682 | 17.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 623 | 46.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 600 | 43.3 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 550 | 20.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 493 | 30.4 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 486 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 13.8 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 363 | 46.8 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 360 | 28.3 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 | 39114 | 302 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Mendenhall. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Mendenhall.
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.