In 2025, fire departments serving Sarepta responded to 42 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $44K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Accident, potential accident, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 76% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
137 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $286K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 23 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023 | 26 | — | |
| 2024 | 46 | +76.9% | |
| 2025 | 42 | -8.7% |
* Well below Sarepta'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 1 building fires Sarepta departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 58 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 | 21 | 36.2% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 17 | 29.3% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 4 | 6.9% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 3 | 5.2% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 3 | 5.2% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Other | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 8 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Function area, other | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 4 | 6.9% |
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 Sarepta mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 25 | 43.1% | |
| 2 | Match | 6 | 10.3% | |
| 3 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 5 | 8.6% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 5.2% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 3 | 5.2% | |
| 6 | Lightning | 3 | 5.2% | |
| 7 | Conducted heat from another fire | 3 | 5.2% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 5 | 8.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Sarepta departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $44,119 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Sarepta sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 17,343 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,378 | 37.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,036 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,299 | 38.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,048 | 47.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 929 | 40.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 905 | 47.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 902 | 34.6 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 902 | 35.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 745 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2004 | Natural | 727 | 19.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 669 | 34.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 506 | 44.5 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 | 71071 | 137 |
Six Louisiana cities with population within ±25% of Sarepta. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Sarepta.
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.