In 2025, fire departments serving Pascagoula responded to 137 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $250K 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 54% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
757 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $2.6M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 154 | — | |
| 2022* | 57 | — | |
| 2023 | 233 | — | |
| 2024 | 176 | -24.5% | |
| 2025 | 137 | -22.2% |
* Well below Pascagoula'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 9 building fires Pascagoula departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 214 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 | 61 | 28.5% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 38 | 17.8% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 22 | 10.3% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 13 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 9 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 6 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 5 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 5 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Exterior, exposed surface | 5 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 4 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 46 | 21.5% |
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 Pascagoula mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 138 | 64.5% | |
| 2 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 15 | 7.0% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 12 | 5.6% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 9 | 4.2% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 8 | 3.7% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 7 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 7 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 4 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 1.4% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 3 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 8 | 3.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Pascagoula departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 94% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $175,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Pascagoula sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 40,950 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,394 | 16.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 4,248 | 6.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,000 | 45.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,500 | 22.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 2,100 | 16.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 1,824 | 27.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,698 | 36.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 1,594 | 24.5 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,500 | 8.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,485 | 47.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,400 | 22.6 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,350 | 31.3 mi |
Top 4 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Pascagoula. 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.