In 2025, fire departments serving Mer Rouge responded to 12 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Road freight or transport vehicle fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
19 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $170K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 1 | — | |
| 2022 | 3 | — | |
| 2023* | 2 | — | |
| 2024* | 1 | — | |
| 2025 | 12 | — |
* Well below Mer Rouge'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 1 building fires Mer Rouge departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 13 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 | Outside area, other | 4 | 30.8% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 23.1% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 3 | 23.1% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 7.7% |
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 Mer Rouge mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 6 | 46.2% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 23.1% | |
| 3 | Lightning | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 4 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 1 | 7.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Mer Rouge departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Mer Rouge sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 16,446 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,669 | 26.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,806 | 17.4 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 1,806 | 10.2 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,509 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,414 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,013 | 46.7 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 755 | 38.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 632 | 16.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 310 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 300 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 300 | 37.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 295 | 24.7 mi |
Top 3 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Louisiana cities with population within ±25% of Mer Rouge. 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.