In 2025, fire departments serving Starkville responded to 281 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K 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 60% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,297 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $2.9M cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 180 | — | |
| 2022 | 166 | -7.8% | |
| 2023 | 316 | +90.4% | |
| 2024 | 354 | +12.0% | |
| 2025 | 281 | -20.6% |
For the 44 building fires Starkville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 422 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 | 77 | 18.2% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 71 | 16.8% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 67 | 15.9% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 35 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 18 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Exterior, exposed surface | 17 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 12 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 9 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Wall assembly | 9 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 8 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 99 | 23.5% |
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 Starkville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 170 | 40.3% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 73 | 17.3% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 38 | 9.0% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 23 | 5.5% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 19 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 14 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 10 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 9 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Lightning | 8 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 7 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 51 | 12.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Starkville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $80,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $40,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $28,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $8,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $7,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $2,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Starkville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
6 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 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 11,207 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Smoking | 1,620 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 892 | 38.6 mi | |
| 2013 | Natural | 700 | 39.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 626 | 49.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 475 | 36.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 472 | 39.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 470 | 28.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 450 | 15.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 420 | 40.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 403 | 48.6 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 390 | 23.4 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 374 | 30.0 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 39759 | 1,297 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Starkville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Starkville.
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.