In 2025, fire departments serving North Charleston responded to 1,154 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.0M 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 61% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
5,671 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $42.6M cumulative property loss. 9 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,155 | — | |
| 2022 | 1,252 | +8.4% | |
| 2023 | 908 | -27.5% | |
| 2024 | 1,202 | +32.4% | |
| 2025 | 1,154 | -4.0% |
For the 141 building fires North Charleston departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 2,158 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 | 417 | 19.3% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 401 | 18.6% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 208 | 9.6% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 166 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 92 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 85 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 74 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 58 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 52 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Exterior, exposed surface | 48 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 557 | 25.8% |
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 North Charleston mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 1,178 | 54.6% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 177 | 8.2% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 157 | 7.3% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 82 | 3.8% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 76 | 3.5% | |
| 6 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 62 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 50 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 49 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Fireworks | 41 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 38 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 248 | 11.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by North Charleston departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 39% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $540,000 | Outside equipment fire | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $500,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $260,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. North Charleston sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
48 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 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 9 | |
| 30-39 | 11 | |
| 40-49 | 8 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 29,736 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,765 | 30.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,466 | 41.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,933 | 27.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,922 | 31.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 1,834 | 22.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,695 | 30.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,630 | 25.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,600 | 37.3 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,600 | 39.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 1,247 | 25.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,200 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,115 | 23.0 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 North Charleston. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in North Charleston.
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.