In 2025, fire departments serving Paragould responded to 257 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $120K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 55% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,604 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $6.4M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 347 | — | |
| 2022 | 313 | -9.8% | |
| 2023 | 386 | +23.3% | |
| 2024 | 301 | -22.0% | |
| 2025 | 257 | -14.6% |
For the 36 building fires Paragould departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 839 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 | 236 | 28.1% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 114 | 13.6% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 81 | 9.7% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 75 | 8.9% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 52 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 26 | 3.1% | |
| 7 | Other | 25 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 25 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 17 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 16 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 172 | 20.5% |
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 Paragould mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 504 | 60.1% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 55 | 6.6% | |
| 3 | Match | 29 | 3.5% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 28 | 3.3% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 28 | 3.3% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 24 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 24 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 23 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 18 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 18 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 88 | 10.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Paragould departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 71% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $120,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $120,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $75,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $60,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $50,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Paragould sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
11 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,538 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 450 | 39.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 334 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 316 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 285 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 282 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 278 | 31.2 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 251 | 49.5 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 250 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 234 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 226 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 213 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 206 | 47.3 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Arkansas cities with population within ±25% of Paragould. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Paragould.
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.