In 2025, fire departments serving Snellville responded to 53 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Snellville's departments reported 53 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 393 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 75% of all calls.
Nov peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,964 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $8.4M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 373 | — | |
| 2022 | 471 | +26.3% | |
| 2023 | 527 | +11.9% | |
| 2024 | 540 | +2.5% | |
| 2025* | 53 | — |
* Well below Snellville'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 5 building fires Snellville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 343 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 | 63 | 18.4% | |
| 2 | Wildland, woods | 42 | 12.2% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 35 | 10.2% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 23 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 23 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 16 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 12 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Outside area, other | 11 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 10 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 10 | 2.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 98 | 28.6% |
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 Snellville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 118 | 34.4% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 32 | 9.3% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 23 | 6.7% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 23 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 19 | 5.5% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 17 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 15 | 4.4% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 8 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 7 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Molten, hot material | 7 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 74 | 21.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Snellville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $2,500 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $2,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $1,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $1,000 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $1,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $1,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Snellville sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
13 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 5 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,401 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 780 | 45.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 347 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 305 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 305 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 301 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 215 | 36.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 158 | 43.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Natural | 150 | 49.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 141 | 49.7 mi | |
| 1993 | Natural | 135 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 126 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 119 | 39.3 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Georgia cities with population within ±25% of Snellville. 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.