In 2025, fire departments serving Sorrento responded to 29 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Passenger vehicle fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 62% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
158 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $577K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 4 | — | |
| 2022 | 29 | — | |
| 2023 | 54 | +86.2% | |
| 2024 | 42 | -22.2% | |
| 2025 | 29 | -31.0% |
* Well below Sorrento'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 Sorrento departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 98 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 | 36 | 36.7% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 14 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 14 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 7 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 6 | 6.1% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 6 | 6.1% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 4 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Cooking area, kitchen | 4 | 4.1% | |
| 9 | Other | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 3 | 3.1% |
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 Sorrento mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 65 | 66.3% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 10 | 10.2% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 5 | 5.1% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 5 | 5.1% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 6 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 1.0% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 1.0% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 1.0% | |
| 10 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 1.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 5 | 5.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Sorrento departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $3 | Grass fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Sorrento sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 6,454 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,200 | 44.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 893 | 34.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 614 | 46.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 450 | 28.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 46.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 258 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 235 | 38.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 200 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 170 | 49.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 160 | 18.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 150 | 18.0 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 Louisiana cities with population within ±25% of Sorrento. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Sorrento.
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.