In 2025, fire departments serving Ruston responded to 290 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $331K 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 55% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,197 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $8.1M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 181 | — | |
| 2022 | 156 | -13.8% | |
| 2023 | 260 | +66.7% | |
| 2024 | 310 | +19.2% | |
| 2025 | 290 | -6.5% |
For the 33 building fires Ruston departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 495 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 74 | 14.9% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 65 | 13.1% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 57 | 11.5% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 49 | 9.9% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 37 | 7.5% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 36 | 7.3% | |
| 7 | Outside area, other | 27 | 5.5% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 14 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Exterior, exposed surface | 14 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 11 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 111 | 22.4% |
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 Ruston mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 246 | 49.7% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 33 | 6.7% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 29 | 5.9% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 27 | 5.5% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 18 | 3.6% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 17 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 14 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 14 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 12 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 12 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 73 | 14.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Ruston departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 73% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $331,314 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $146,257 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $142,611 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $102,680 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $91,271 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $85,567 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Ruston sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
8 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 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 17,064 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 | 4,969 | 41.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,806 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,254 | 43.0 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,075 | 47.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 929 | 28.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 906 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 902 | 18.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 745 | 20.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 669 | 34.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 380 | 39.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 345 | 41.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 334 | 33.5 mi |
Top 4 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Louisiana cities with population within ±25% of Ruston. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Ruston.
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.