In 2025, fire departments serving Mount Airy responded to 574 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $350K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 52% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,878 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $2.7M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 492 | — | |
| 2022 | 619 | +25.8% | |
| 2023 | 576 | -6.9% | |
| 2024 | 617 | +7.1% | |
| 2025 | 574 | -7.0% |
For the 89 building fires Mount Airy departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 790 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 | 180 | 22.8% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 167 | 21.1% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 75 | 9.5% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 51 | 6.5% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 51 | 6.5% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 44 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 31 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 20 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Other | 14 | 1.8% | |
| 10 | Storage area, other | 14 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 143 | 18.1% |
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 Mount Airy mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 471 | 59.6% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 41 | 5.2% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 41 | 5.2% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 37 | 4.7% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 33 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 30 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 17 | 2.2% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 16 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 16 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 15 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 73 | 9.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Mount Airy departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 95% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $35,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Mount Airy sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
12 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 3 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 13,152 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Natural | 3,696 | 27.1 mi | |
| 2013 | Smoking | 1,509 | 36.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 850 | 46.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 800 | 47.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 737 | 14.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 730 | 15.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 675 | 13.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 484 | 16.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 457 | 30.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 363 | 17.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 310 | 30.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 262 | 30.0 mi |
Top 9 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six North Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Mount Airy. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Mount Airy.
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.