In 2025, fire departments serving Monroe responded to 656 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 59% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,928 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $32.4M cumulative property loss. 9 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 668 | — | |
| 2022 | 681 | +1.9% | |
| 2023 | 1,025 | +50.5% | |
| 2024 | 898 | -12.4% | |
| 2025 | 656 | -26.9% |
For the 85 building fires Monroe departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 2,478 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 770 | 31.1% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 414 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 199 | 8.0% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 197 | 7.9% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 170 | 6.9% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 70 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 65 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 58 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 54 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 44 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 437 | 17.6% |
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 Monroe mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 1,443 | 58.2% | |
| 2 | Cigarette lighter | 127 | 5.1% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 126 | 5.1% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 96 | 3.9% | |
| 5 | Match | 72 | 2.9% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 67 | 2.7% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 63 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 63 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Heat source: other | 58 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 41 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 322 | 13.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Monroe departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 45% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $450,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $250,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $200,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $180,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $168,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $150,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Monroe sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
28 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 | 2 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 6 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 5 | |
| 60-69 | 7 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 14,289 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 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,806 | 28.2 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 1,806 | 32.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 929 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 902 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 745 | 49.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 632 | 34.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 380 | 47.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 295 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 274 | 28.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 251 | 48.0 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 Monroe. 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.