Ross Fire in North Texas Reaches 100% Containment After 90,000-Acre Run
The Ross Fire near Palo Pinto, Texas burned about 90,000 acres and destroyed at least 167 structures before crews fully contained it on Sept. 16.
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In 2025, fire departments serving Smithville responded to 165 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Authorized controlled burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 76% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
654 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $25K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 130 | — | |
| 2022 | 176 | +35.4% | |
| 2023* | 74 | — | |
| 2024 | 109 | — | |
| 2025 | 165 | +51.4% |
* Well below Smithville'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 17 building fires Smithville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 295 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 | 95 | 32.2% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 40 | 13.6% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 34 | 11.5% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 25 | 8.5% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 17 | 5.8% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 16 | 5.4% | |
| 7 | Other | 10 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Cooking area, kitchen | 8 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 6 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 6 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 38 | 12.9% |
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 Smithville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 134 | 45.4% | |
| 2 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 27 | 9.2% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 16 | 5.4% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 14 | 4.7% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 12 | 4.1% | |
| 6 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 11 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 10 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Match | 10 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Lightning | 8 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 7 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 46 | 15.6% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Smithville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 63,014 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 34,068 | 15.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,030 | 19.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 4,582 | 4.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3,085 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2,700 | 18.8 mi | |
| 2009 | Fireworks | 1,804 | 43.8 mi | |
| 2009 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1,491 | 6.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,455 | 17.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 1,200 | 41.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Equipment and vehicle use | 866 | 47.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Natural | 800 | 18.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 719 | 19.7 mi |
Top 3 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Texas cities with population within ±25% of Smithville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Smithville.
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.