In 2025, fire departments serving Montgomery responded to 1,951 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100.0M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 52% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
8,110 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $164.4M cumulative property loss. 22 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,083 | — | |
| 2022 | 1,460 | +34.8% | |
| 2023 | 1,791 | +22.7% | |
| 2024 | 1,825 | +1.9% | |
| 2025 | 1,951 | +6.9% |
For the 225 building fires Montgomery departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 3,948 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 | 1,429 | 36.2% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 483 | 12.2% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 376 | 9.5% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 288 | 7.3% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 190 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Other | 112 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 98 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 95 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 88 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 78 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 711 | 18.0% |
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 Montgomery mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 2,927 | 74.1% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 178 | 4.5% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 130 | 3.3% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 129 | 3.3% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 115 | 2.9% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 73 | 1.8% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 64 | 1.6% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 47 | 1.2% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 33 | 0.8% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 32 | 0.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 220 | 5.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Montgomery departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 92% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000,000 | Electrical wiring/equipment problem, other | Catastrophic | Investigated |
| 2 | $2,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $2,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $2,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $750,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $308,500 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Montgomery sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
69 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 | 4 | |
| 10-19 | 4 | |
| 20-29 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 9 | |
| 40-49 | 10 | |
| 50-59 | 5 | |
| 60-69 | 5 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 4 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 11,589 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 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,005 | 23.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 565 | 31.5 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 504 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 481 | 33.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 480 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 471 | 39.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 450 | 26.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 28.3 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 387 | 22.0 mi | |
| 2013 | Arson/incendiarism | 362 | 33.3 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 320 | 33.1 mi |
Top 10 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 Montgomery. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Montgomery.
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.