In 2025, fire departments serving Raleigh responded to 2,753 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $597K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Carbon monoxide incident lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 47% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
12,325 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $22.6M cumulative property loss. 14 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2,210 | — | |
| 2022 | 2,586 | +17.0% | |
| 2023 | 2,163 | -16.4% | |
| 2024 | 2,613 | +20.8% | |
| 2025 | 2,753 | +5.4% |
For the 175 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 1,497 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 | 299 | 20.0% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 238 | 15.9% | |
| 3 | Wildland, woods | 131 | 8.8% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 128 | 8.6% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 114 | 7.6% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 101 | 6.7% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 63 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 42 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 32 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 27 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 322 | 21.5% |
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 | 604 | 40.3% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 113 | 7.5% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 107 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 91 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 87 | 5.8% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 56 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 55 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 55 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 48 | 3.2% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 46 | 3.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 235 | 15.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Raleigh departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 34% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $597,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $444,069 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $426,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $330,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $271,395 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Raleigh sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
46 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 | 2 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 7 | |
| 30-39 | 8 | |
| 40-49 | 7 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 12,664 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,030 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,012 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,778 | 25.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 750 | 46.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 500 | 47.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 500 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 456 | 41.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 400 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Recreation and ceremony | 339 | 24.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 300 | 24.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 289 | 35.3 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 275 | 46.0 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
4 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.