In 2025, fire departments serving Perry responded to 180 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $750K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Aircraft standby lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 57% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,131 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $4.3M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 204 | — | |
| 2022 | 270 | +32.4% | |
| 2023 | 260 | -3.7% | |
| 2024 | 217 | -16.5% | |
| 2025 | 180 | -17.1% |
For the 14 building fires Perry departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 254 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 | 60 | 23.6% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 36 | 14.2% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 33 | 13.0% | |
| 4 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 15 | 5.9% | |
| 5 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 12 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 10 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 6 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Exterior, exposed surface | 6 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 6 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 5 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 65 | 25.6% |
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 Perry mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 107 | 42.1% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 40 | 15.7% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 22 | 8.7% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 18 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 12 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 12 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 10 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 9 | 3.5% | |
| 9 | Chemical reaction | 6 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 4 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 14 | 5.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Perry departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 94% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $750,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $600,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $40,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $25,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Perry sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
14 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 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,941 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 356 | 49.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 348 | 48.8 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 289 | 38.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 283 | 33.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 276 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 262 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 256 | 30.4 mi | |
| 1992 | Debris and open burning | 254 | 43.3 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 246 | 49.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 232 | 43.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 224 | 38.9 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 31069 | 1,131 |
Six Georgia cities with population within ±25% of Perry. 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.