In 2025, fire departments serving Ripley responded to 88 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 86% of all calls.
Mar peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
375 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $836K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 60 | — | |
| 2022* | 35 | — | |
| 2023 | 112 | — | |
| 2024 | 80 | -28.6% | |
| 2025 | 88 | +10.0% |
* Well below Ripley'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 13 building fires Ripley departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 175 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 | 121 | 69.1% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 13 | 7.4% | |
| 3 | Multiple areas | 9 | 5.1% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 6 | 3.4% | |
| 5 | Entrance way, lobby | 5 | 2.9% | |
| 6 | Interior stairway or ramp | 3 | 1.7% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 2 | 1.1% | |
| 8 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 2 | 1.1% | |
| 9 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 1.1% | |
| 10 | Corridor, mall | 1 | 0.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 11 | 6.3% |
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 Ripley mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 161 | 92.0% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 4 | 2.3% | |
| 3 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 2 | 1.1% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 0.6% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 0.6% | |
| 6 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 0.6% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 0.6% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 0.6% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 1 | 0.6% | |
| 10 | Chemical reaction | 1 | 0.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1 | 0.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Ripley departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $30,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $8,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $5,000 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $500 | Grass fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Ripley sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 20,218 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,826 | 30.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Smoking | 1,620 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,344 | 35.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,200 | 47.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,130 | 22.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1,092 | 28.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,007 | 25.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,005 | 20.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 1,000 | 13.0 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 891 | 32.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 870 | 32.5 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 770 | 31.1 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 | 38663 | 375 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Ripley. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.