In 2025, fire departments serving New Orleans responded to 2,091 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $3.5M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Electrical wiring/equipment problem, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 49% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
15,637 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $100.6M cumulative property loss. 5 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 3,376 | — | |
| 2022 | 3,467 | +2.7% | |
| 2023 | 3,451 | -0.5% | |
| 2024 | 3,252 | -5.8% | |
| 2025 | 2,091 | -35.7% |
For the 156 building fires New Orleans departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 3,613 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 605 | 16.7% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 562 | 15.6% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 292 | 8.1% | |
| 4 | Vehicle area, other | 264 | 7.3% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 219 | 6.1% | |
| 6 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 151 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 122 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 110 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 93 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 81 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1,114 | 30.8% |
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 Orleans mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 1,401 | 38.8% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 366 | 10.1% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 293 | 8.1% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 221 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 215 | 6.0% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 174 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 139 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 103 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 79 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Hot ember or ash | 62 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 560 | 15.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by New Orleans departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 58% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $3,504,780 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $3,500,000 | Aircraft standby | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $2,079,750 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $590,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $520,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $465,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $373,900 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $340,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. New Orleans sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
83 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 | 11 | |
| 30-39 | 13 | |
| 40-49 | 23 | |
| 50-59 | 24 | |
| 60-69 | 8 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 31,001 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,708 | 35.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,000 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,135 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,922 | 20.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,600 | 30.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 1,507 | 27.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 1,500 | 1.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,485 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,200 | 39.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,178 | 32.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,078 | 33.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 923 | 47.7 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.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in New Orleans.
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.