In 2025, fire departments serving Prairieville responded to 201 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $349K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Prairieville's departments reported 201 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 343 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 60% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,714 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $3.3M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 536 | — | |
| 2022 | 268 | -50.0% | |
| 2023 | 409 | +52.6% | |
| 2024 | 300 | -26.7% | |
| 2025* | 201 | — |
* Well below Prairieville'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 24 building fires Prairieville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 568 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 105 | 18.5% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 91 | 16.0% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 83 | 14.6% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 52 | 9.2% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 37 | 6.5% | |
| 6 | Other | 24 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 18 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 17 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Wildland, woods | 14 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 13 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 114 | 20.1% |
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 Prairieville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 232 | 40.8% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 58 | 10.2% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 36 | 6.3% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 33 | 5.8% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 29 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 22 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 19 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 19 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 18 | 3.2% | |
| 10 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 16 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 86 | 15.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Prairieville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 96% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $349,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $49,999 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Prairieville sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
8 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 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 6,328 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,200 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 893 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 450 | 23.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 41.3 mi | |
| 2009 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 258 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 235 | 40.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 230 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Recreation and ceremony | 200 | 45.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 200 | 31.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 39.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 192 | 44.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 170 | 43.0 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 Louisiana cities with population within ±25% of Prairieville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Prairieville.
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.