In 2025, fire departments serving Sandersville responded to 17 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 88% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
106 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $1K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 9 | — | |
| 2022* | 12 | — | |
| 2023 | 34 | — | |
| 2024 | 34 | +0.0% | |
| 2025 | 17 | -50.0% |
* Well below Sandersville'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 3 building fires Sandersville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 18 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 | 8 | 44.4% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Egress/exit, other | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 8 | Outside area, other | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 9 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 5.6% |
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 Sandersville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 15 | 83.3% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Cigarette lighter | 1 | 5.6% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Sandersville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 57,371 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,717 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,300 | 45.1 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 4,212 | 39.0 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,964 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Firearms and explosives use | 3,684 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,180 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,857 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,640 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,442 | 46.5 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,354 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,174 | 46.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Firearms and explosives use | 2,063 | 45.9 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 | 39477 | 106 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Sandersville. 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.