In 2025, fire departments serving Snead responded to 10 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 70% of all calls.
Sep peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
40 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $46K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 9 | — | |
| 2022* | 4 | — | |
| 2023 | 7 | — | |
| 2024 | 10 | +42.9% | |
| 2025 | 10 | +0.0% |
* Well below Snead'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 Snead departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 17 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 | 6 | 35.3% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 6 | Storage area, other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 5.9% |
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 Snead mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 8 | 47.1% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 17.6% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 1 | 5.9% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Snead sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 24,128 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 3,000 | 41.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,500 | 40.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,636 | 33.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,540 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,308 | 40.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,078 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 919 | 42.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 890 | 32.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 867 | 49.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 800 | 40.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 700 | 37.0 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 | 35952 | 40 |
Six Alabama cities with population within ±25% of Snead. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Snead.
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.