In 2025, fire departments serving Southside responded to 17 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 77% of all calls.
Mar peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
21 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023* | 2 | — | |
| 2024* | 2 | — | |
| 2025 | 17 | — |
* Well below Southside'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 6 building fires Southside departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 10 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 | Other | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Dining room, cafeteria bar area, beverage service | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Wall assembly | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 6 | Roof surface: exterior | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 8 | Undetermined | 1 | 10.0% |
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 Southside mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat source: other | 3 | 30.0% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 30.0% | |
| 3 | Cigarette lighter | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 2 | 20.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Southside sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 13,552 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,779 | 15.6 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,591 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 928 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 800 | 47.3 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 776 | 19.3 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 524 | 15.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 508 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 472 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 466 | 36.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 456 | 15.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 441 | 18.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 423 | 46.2 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Arkansas cities with population within ±25% of Southside. 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.