In 2025, fire departments serving Opelika responded to 288 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 40% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,252 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $4.2M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 3 | — | |
| 2022 | 378 | — | |
| 2023 | 291 | -23.0% | |
| 2024 | 292 | +0.3% | |
| 2025 | 288 | -1.4% |
* Well below Opelika'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 Opelika departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 276 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 | 80 | 29.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 48 | 17.4% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 19 | 6.9% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 12 | 4.3% | |
| 5 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 9 | 3.3% | |
| 6 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 8 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 8 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 8 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 7 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 6 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 71 | 25.7% |
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 Opelika mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 112 | 40.6% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 32 | 11.6% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 25 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 20 | 7.2% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 15 | 5.4% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 13 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Heat, spark from friction | 10 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 9 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 7 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Hot ember or ash | 6 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 27 | 9.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Opelika departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 92% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $20,000 | Forest, woods or wildland fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $10,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Opelika sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 9,838 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,005 | 37.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 522 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 504 | 27.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 481 | 22.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 480 | 26.2 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 465 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 450 | 33.1 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 24.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 29.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 39.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 387 | 37.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 375 | 33.1 mi |
Top 7 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Alabama cities with population within ±25% of Opelika. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.