In 2025, fire departments serving Pell City responded to 206 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 51% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,161 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $6.9M cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 170 | — | |
| 2022 | 237 | +39.4% | |
| 2023 | 279 | +17.7% | |
| 2024 | 269 | -3.6% | |
| 2025 | 206 | -23.4% |
For the 16 building fires Pell City departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 475 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 | Outside area, other | 96 | 20.2% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 78 | 16.4% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 60 | 12.6% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 39 | 8.2% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 35 | 7.4% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 31 | 6.5% | |
| 7 | Other | 11 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 9 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 9 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 8 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 99 | 20.8% |
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 Pell City mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 201 | 42.3% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 53 | 11.2% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 43 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 29 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 22 | 4.6% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 19 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 16 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 15 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 14 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Match | 7 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 56 | 11.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Pell City departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 87% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Pell City sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
6 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 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 33,119 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,108 | 26.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 3,000 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 2,950 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,500 | 23.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,229 | 23.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 1,800 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,636 | 49.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,540 | 14.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,308 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 1,100 | 21.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,078 | 28.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,066 | 28.3 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 Alabama cities with population within ±25% of Pell City. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Pell City.
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.