In 2025, fire departments serving Statesboro responded to 196 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $350K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 71% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,541 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $8.0M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 299 | — | |
| 2022 | 348 | +16.4% | |
| 2023 | 350 | +0.6% | |
| 2024 | 348 | -0.6% | |
| 2025 | 196 | -43.7% |
For the 14 building fires Statesboro departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 705 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 | 159 | 22.6% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 98 | 13.9% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 88 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 70 | 9.9% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 69 | 9.8% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 42 | 6.0% | |
| 7 | Outside area, other | 26 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 17 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 12 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 11 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 113 | 16.0% |
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 Statesboro mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 429 | 60.9% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 63 | 8.9% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 60 | 8.5% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 22 | 3.1% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 21 | 3.0% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 17 | 2.4% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 15 | 2.1% | |
| 8 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 9 | 1.3% | |
| 9 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 8 | 1.1% | |
| 10 | Molten, hot material | 6 | 0.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 55 | 7.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Statesboro departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 83% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $120,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $82,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $29,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $25,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $22,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Statesboro sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
11 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 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 19,893 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 4,035 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 1,742 | 41.4 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 1,245 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 1,016 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 916 | 28.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 827 | 25.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 791 | 44.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 789 | 18.7 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 761 | 46.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 760 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 713 | 18.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 663 | 24.3 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 Georgia cities with population within ±25% of Statesboro. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Statesboro.
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.