In 2025, fire departments serving Ridgeland responded to 141 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
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.
Jun peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
665 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $2.9M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 139 | — | |
| 2022* | 48 | — | |
| 2023 | 162 | — | |
| 2024 | 175 | +8.0% | |
| 2025 | 141 | -19.4% |
* Well below Ridgeland'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 7 building fires Ridgeland departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 145 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 | 50 | 34.5% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 33 | 22.8% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 8 | 5.5% | |
| 4 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 6 | 4.1% | |
| 5 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 4 | 2.8% | |
| 6 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 4 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 8 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Switchgear area, transformer vault | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 28 | 19.3% |
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 Ridgeland mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 91 | 62.8% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 12 | 8.3% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 10 | 6.9% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 5 | 3.4% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 10 | 6.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Ridgeland departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $3,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Ridgeland sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 13,476 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 4,152 | 21.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 1,001 | 49.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 682 | 38.3 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 600 | 30.0 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 550 | 36.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 510 | 30.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 493 | 13.1 mi | |
| 1998 | Debris and open burning | 473 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 22.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 416 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 26.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 315 | 44.2 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 | 39157 | 665 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Ridgeland. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Ridgeland.
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.