In 2025, fire departments serving Phenix City responded to 466 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 51% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,888 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $815K cumulative property loss. 11 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 160 | — | |
| 2022 | 440 | — | |
| 2023 | 398 | -9.5% | |
| 2024 | 424 | +6.5% | |
| 2025 | 466 | +9.9% |
* Well below Phenix City'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 49 building fires Phenix City departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 679 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 | 179 | 26.4% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 97 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 60 | 8.8% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 52 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Other | 30 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 29 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 26 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 21 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 18 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 11 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 156 | 23.0% |
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 Phenix City mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 430 | 63.3% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 32 | 4.7% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 29 | 4.3% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 24 | 3.5% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 22 | 3.2% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 16 | 2.4% | |
| 7 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 13 | 1.9% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 13 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Radiated heat from another fire | 13 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 12 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 75 | 11.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Phenix City departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $25,000 | Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $20,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $5,000 | Chimney or flue fire, confined to chimney or flue | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $500 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Phenix City sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
16 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 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 8,913 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 522 | 22.4 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 504 | 32.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 481 | 40.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 480 | 27.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 465 | 24.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 450 | 46.7 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 24.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 45.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 375 | 22.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 356 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 348 | 42.5 mi |
Top 8 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 Phenix City. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Phenix 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.