In 2025, fire departments serving Myrtle Beach responded to 1,192 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $20.0M 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 41% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
5,244 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $54.3M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,077 | — | |
| 2022 | 856 | -20.5% | |
| 2023 | 1,067 | +24.6% | |
| 2024 | 1,052 | -1.4% | |
| 2025 | 1,192 | +13.3% |
For the 132 building fires Myrtle Beach departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,919 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 | 323 | 16.8% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 224 | 11.7% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 194 | 10.1% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 176 | 9.2% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 152 | 7.9% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 139 | 7.2% | |
| 7 | Outside area, other | 91 | 4.7% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 57 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 48 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 43 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 472 | 24.6% |
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 Myrtle Beach mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 914 | 47.6% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 192 | 10.0% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 159 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 120 | 6.3% | |
| 5 | Cigarette | 93 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 54 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 51 | 2.7% | |
| 8 | Fireworks | 49 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 47 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 37 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 203 | 10.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Myrtle Beach departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 87% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $20,000,000 | Building fires | Catastrophic | Investigated |
| 2 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $289,100 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $194,125 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $175,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Myrtle Beach sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
160 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 | 3 | |
| 10-19 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 18 | |
| 30-39 | 14 | |
| 40-49 | 20 | |
| 50-59 | 10 | |
| 60-69 | 4 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 42,866 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 19,130 | 8.0 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,150 | 22.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,466 | 49.1 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,911 | 10.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 1,648 | 5.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,600 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 1,577 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Fireworks | 1,155 | 4.5 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 1,089 | 17.9 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 970 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 856 | 44.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 844 | 6.2 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 South Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Myrtle Beach. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Myrtle Beach.
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.