In 2025, fire departments serving Midway responded to 117 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 58% of all calls.
Dec peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
470 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.7M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022 | 99 | — | |
| 2023 | 116 | +17.2% | |
| 2024 | 138 | +19.0% | |
| 2025 | 117 | -15.2% |
* Well below Midway'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 10 building fires Midway departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 127 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 | 49 | 38.6% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 36 | 28.3% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 10 | 7.9% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 5 | 3.9% | |
| 5 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 4 | 3.1% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 4 | 3.1% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 3 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Fuel tank, fuel line | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 10 | 7.9% |
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 Midway mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 77 | 60.6% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 12 | 9.4% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 8 | 6.3% | |
| 4 | Heat, spark from friction | 8 | 6.3% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 6 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 3.1% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 0.8% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 0.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 6 | 4.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Midway departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $25,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $19,023 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $4,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $2,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Midway sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 29,423 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 4,035 | 17.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,500 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 3,482 | 28.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 1,742 | 28.9 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 1,245 | 32.1 mi | |
| 1998 | Natural | 1,080 | 25.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 1,076 | 26.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,022 | 45.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 1,016 | 31.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 963 | 25.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 916 | 21.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 827 | 23.5 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Georgia cities with population within ±25% of Midway. 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.