In 2025, fire departments serving Raeford responded to 402 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $120K 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 54% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,386 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $2.8M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 425 | — | |
| 2022 | 719 | +69.2% | |
| 2023 | 412 | -42.7% | |
| 2024 | 428 | +3.9% | |
| 2025 | 402 | -6.1% |
For the 81 building fires Raeford departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 751 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 | 167 | 22.2% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 132 | 17.6% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 81 | 10.8% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 74 | 9.9% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 55 | 7.3% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 53 | 7.1% | |
| 7 | Other | 28 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 19 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 16 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 12 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 114 | 15.2% |
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 Raeford mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 372 | 49.5% | |
| 2 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 52 | 6.9% | |
| 3 | Cigarette lighter | 47 | 6.3% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 37 | 4.9% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 36 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 31 | 4.1% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 27 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 27 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 26 | 3.5% | |
| 10 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 23 | 3.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 73 | 9.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Raeford departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 86% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $120,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $106,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $50,000 | Grass fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $30,000 | Grass fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $17,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $10,000 | Grass fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Raeford sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
23 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 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 5 | |
| 40-49 | 7 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 20,719 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Natural | 5,438 | 30.4 mi | |
| 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,358 | 15.9 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,181 | 13.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,164 | 26.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 969 | 16.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 795 | 32.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 750 | 21.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 697 | 14.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 669 | 17.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 586 | 17.2 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 550 | 29.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 547 | 16.4 mi |
Top 7 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six North Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Raeford. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
5 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Raeford.
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.