In 2025, fire departments serving Southaven responded to 385 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.5M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 61% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,637 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $9.9M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 269 | — | |
| 2022* | 84 | — | |
| 2023 | 625 | — | |
| 2024 | 274 | -56.2% | |
| 2025 | 385 | +40.5% |
* Well below Southaven'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 26 building fires Southaven departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 361 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 | 81 | 22.4% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 70 | 19.4% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 36 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 33 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 14 | 3.9% | |
| 6 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 13 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 12 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 12 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 11 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 8 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 71 | 19.7% |
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 Southaven mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 195 | 54.0% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 60 | 16.6% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 19 | 5.3% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 15 | 4.2% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 9 | 2.5% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 9 | 2.5% | |
| 7 | Fireworks | 8 | 2.2% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 7 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 7 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Molten, hot material | 6 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 26 | 7.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Southaven departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 86% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,500,000 | Building or structure weakened or collapsed | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $300,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $275,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $65,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Southaven sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 17,524 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,826 | 46.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,200 | 28.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,130 | 39.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1,092 | 41.3 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,007 | 36.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,005 | 46.6 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 891 | 38.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 870 | 32.3 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 770 | 31.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 750 | 33.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 720 | 46.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 637 | 30.8 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 Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Southaven. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Southaven.
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.