In 2025, fire departments serving Petal responded to 184 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $250K 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 67% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
799 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $3.0M cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 118 | — | |
| 2022* | 71 | — | |
| 2023 | 188 | — | |
| 2024 | 238 | +26.6% | |
| 2025 | 184 | -22.7% |
* Well below Petal'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 25 building fires Petal departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 263 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 | 93 | 35.4% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 36 | 13.7% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 31 | 11.8% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 11 | 4.2% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 9 | 3.4% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 9 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 8 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Other | 7 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 6 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 6 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 47 | 17.9% |
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 Petal mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 158 | 60.1% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 21 | 8.0% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 18 | 6.8% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 10 | 3.8% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 10 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 8 | 3.0% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 6 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 6 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 5 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 4 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 17 | 6.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Petal departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 96% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $250,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $210,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $93,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $75,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Petal sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
9 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 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 55,667 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,717 | 18.2 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,300 | 16.2 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,964 | 17.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Firearms and explosives use | 3,684 | 13.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,180 | 17.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,857 | 17.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,640 | 18.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,442 | 17.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,354 | 16.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,174 | 16.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,135 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Firearms and explosives use | 2,063 | 17.6 mi |
Top 3 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 Petal. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Petal.
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.