In 2025, fire departments serving Mineral Springs responded to 28 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $160K 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 82% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
110 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $861K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 6 | — | |
| 2022 | 33 | — | |
| 2023 | 17 | -48.5% | |
| 2024 | 26 | +52.9% | |
| 2025 | 28 | +7.7% |
* Well below Mineral Springs'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 2 building fires Mineral Springs departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 30 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 | 10 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Wall assembly | 4 | 13.3% | |
| 3 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 4 | 13.3% | |
| 4 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 3 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 10.0% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Outside area, other | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1 | 3.3% |
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 Mineral Springs mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 23 | 76.7% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 10.0% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 4 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 5 | Cigarette | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 6 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 3.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Mineral Springs departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $160,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $130,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Mineral Springs sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 39,652 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 9,071 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 8,294 | 39.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 3,739 | 34.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,550 | 33.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 1,535 | 45.1 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,299 | 42.8 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,200 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,162 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 933 | 37.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 905 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 900 | 18.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 873 | 35.1 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 | 71851 | 110 |
Six Arkansas cities with population within ±25% of Mineral Springs. 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.