In 2025, fire departments serving Raleigh responded to 60 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 85% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
234 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $5K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 30 | — | |
| 2022* | 24 | — | |
| 2023 | 79 | — | |
| 2024 | 41 | -48.1% | |
| 2025 | 60 | +46.3% |
* Well below Raleigh'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 2 building fires Raleigh departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 58 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 | 44 | 75.9% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 8.6% | |
| 3 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 6 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 7 | Swimming pool | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 8 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 1.7% |
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 Raleigh mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 51 | 87.9% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 6.9% | |
| 3 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 4 | Conducted heat from another fire | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 5 | Multiple heat sources including multiple ignitions | 1 | 1.7% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Raleigh sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 13,992 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 4,212 | 27.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 1,001 | 21.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 801 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 682 | 7.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 600 | 48.6 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 550 | 40.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 493 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 24.9 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 360 | 35.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 20.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 340 | 39.3 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 | 39153 | 234 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Raleigh. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Raleigh.
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.