In 2025, fire departments serving Millbrook responded to 81 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K 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 41% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
296 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $543K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 38 | — | |
| 2022* | 6 | — | |
| 2023 | 106 | — | |
| 2024 | 65 | -38.7% | |
| 2025 | 81 | +24.6% |
* Well below Millbrook'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 5 building fires Millbrook departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 158 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 | 45 | 28.5% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 24 | 15.2% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 14 | 8.9% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 11 | 7.0% | |
| 5 | Other | 8 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 8 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 7 | 4.4% | |
| 8 | Structural area, other | 6 | 3.8% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 4 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 3 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 28 | 17.7% |
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 Millbrook mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 84 | 53.2% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 10 | 6.3% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 9 | 5.7% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 8 | 5.1% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 8 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Match | 7 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 5 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 4 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 17 | 10.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Millbrook departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 94% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $50,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $50,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $10,000 | Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Millbrook sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 14,943 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,590 | 37.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 1,800 | 43.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,066 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,005 | 32.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 657 | 41.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 565 | 33.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 502 | 38.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 481 | 38.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 475 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 450 | 33.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 448 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | 441 | 41.7 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 Alabama cities with population within ±25% of Millbrook. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Millbrook.
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.