In 2025, fire departments serving Southern Pines responded to 219 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Cooking fire, confined to container lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 61% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,281 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $1.6M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 103 | — | |
| 2022 | 426 | — | |
| 2023 | 236 | -44.6% | |
| 2024 | 297 | +25.8% | |
| 2025 | 219 | -26.3% |
* Well below Southern Pines'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 21 building fires Southern Pines departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 416 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 198 | 47.6% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 41 | 9.9% | |
| 3 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 26 | 6.2% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 24 | 5.8% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 23 | 5.5% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 22 | 5.3% | |
| 7 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 8 | 1.9% | |
| 8 | Undetermined | 6 | 1.4% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 5 | 1.2% | |
| 10 | Function area, other | 5 | 1.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 58 | 13.9% |
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 Southern Pines mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 136 | 32.7% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 91 | 21.9% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 48 | 11.5% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 24 | 5.8% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 23 | 5.5% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 13 | 3.1% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 11 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 11 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Heat source: other | 8 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 8 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 43 | 10.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Southern Pines departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $85,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $55,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $7,900 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $3,990 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $1,500 | Grass fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Southern Pines sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 20,002 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Natural | 5,438 | 45.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,358 | 16.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,181 | 15.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,164 | 41.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 969 | 15.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 750 | 23.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 697 | 14.9 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 669 | 17.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 586 | 15.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 550 | 39.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 547 | 17.4 mi | |
| 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 500 | 32.6 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 North Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Southern Pines. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Southern Pines.
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.