In 2025, fire departments serving New Albany responded to 144 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $60K 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 56% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
850 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $3.3M cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 131 | — | |
| 2022* | 100 | — | |
| 2023 | 272 | — | |
| 2024 | 203 | -25.4% | |
| 2025 | 144 | -29.1% |
* Well below New Albany'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 18 building fires New Albany departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 238 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 | 67 | 28.2% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 49 | 20.6% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 23 | 9.7% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 16 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 12 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 6 | 2.5% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 5 | 2.1% | |
| 8 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 5 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 5 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 5 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 45 | 18.9% |
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 New Albany mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 147 | 61.8% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 26 | 10.9% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 17 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 9 | 3.8% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 9 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 5 | 2.1% | |
| 7 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 4 | 1.7% | |
| 8 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 3 | 1.3% | |
| 9 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 0.8% | |
| 10 | Molten, hot material | 2 | 0.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 14 | 5.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by New Albany departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 87% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $60,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $40,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $30,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $8,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $8,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. New Albany sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 20,218 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,826 | 20.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Smoking | 1,620 | 37.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,344 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,200 | 42.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,130 | 25.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1,092 | 23.0 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,007 | 33.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,005 | 16.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 1,000 | 11.3 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 891 | 27.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 870 | 31.0 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 770 | 31.6 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 | 38652 | 850 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of New Albany. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in New Albany.
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.