In 2025, fire departments serving Scooba responded to 22 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Passenger vehicle fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 95% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
70 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $76K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 10 | — | |
| 2022* | 3 | — | |
| 2023 | 21 | — | |
| 2024 | 14 | -33.3% | |
| 2025 | 22 | +57.1% |
* Well below Scooba'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 0 building fires Scooba departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 21 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 9 | 42.9% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 6 | 28.6% | |
| 3 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 5 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Exterior, exposed surface | 1 | 4.8% |
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 Scooba mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 12 | 57.1% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Lightning | 1 | 4.8% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Scooba sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 8,150 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 892 | 11.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 823 | 19.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 470 | 21.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 420 | 35.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 403 | 3.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 31.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Natural | 365 | 35.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 19.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 325 | 16.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 320 | 47.8 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 311 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 253 | 15.2 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 | 39358 | 70 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Scooba. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Scooba.
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.