In 2025, fire departments serving Six Mile responded to 158 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 45% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
558 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $80K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 103 | — | |
| 2022 | 122 | +18.4% | |
| 2023* | 60 | — | |
| 2024 | 115 | — | |
| 2025 | 158 | +37.4% |
* Well below Six Mile'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 10 building fires Six Mile departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 128 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 | Outside area, other | 37 | 28.9% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 37 | 28.9% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 13 | 10.2% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 9 | 7.0% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 7 | 5.5% | |
| 6 | Other | 6 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Function area, other | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 8 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 9 | Construction/renovation area | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Corridor, mall | 1 | 0.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 12 | 9.4% |
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 Six Mile mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 87 | 68.0% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 9 | 7.0% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 5 | 3.9% | |
| 4 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 4 | 3.1% | |
| 5 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 4 | 3.1% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 8 | 6.2% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Six Mile sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 50,271 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 24,725 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 10,623 | 16.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,422 | 47.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,129 | 46.1 mi | |
| 1993 | Natural | 1,050 | 20.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 889 | 31.7 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 800 | 26.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 728 | 47.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 580 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2017 | Recreation and ceremony | 570 | 26.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 500 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Recreation and ceremony | 468 | 16.7 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 South Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Six Mile. 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.