In 2025, fire departments serving Meridian responded to 702 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $325K 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 67% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,971 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $7.5M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 546 | — | |
| 2022* | 230 | — | |
| 2023 | 822 | — | |
| 2024 | 671 | -18.4% | |
| 2025 | 702 | +4.6% |
* Well below Meridian'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 133 building fires Meridian departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 873 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 | 283 | 32.4% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 150 | 17.2% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 65 | 7.4% | |
| 4 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 47 | 5.4% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 41 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 26 | 3.0% | |
| 7 | Outside area, other | 22 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 19 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 16 | 1.8% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 15 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 189 | 21.6% |
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 Meridian mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 504 | 57.7% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 75 | 8.6% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 57 | 6.5% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 34 | 3.9% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 24 | 2.7% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 20 | 2.3% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 18 | 2.1% | |
| 8 | Match | 17 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 17 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 15 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 92 | 10.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Meridian departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 80% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $325,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $225,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $180,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $120,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Meridian 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 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 13,223 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 | 31.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 892 | 37.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 823 | 26.2 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 45.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 470 | 46.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 403 | 35.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 11.7 mi | |
| 2019 | Natural | 365 | 32.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 17.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 345 | 39.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 325 | 45.3 mi |
Top 6 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Meridian. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
5 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Meridian.
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.