In 2025, fire departments serving Sulphur responded to 234 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $250K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Sulphur's departments reported 234 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 516 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 53% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,582 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $15.1M cumulative property loss. 6 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 417 | — | |
| 2022 | 542 | +30.0% | |
| 2023 | 748 | +38.0% | |
| 2024 | 641 | -14.3% | |
| 2025* | 234 | — |
* Well below Sulphur'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 47 building fires Sulphur departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 638 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 | 123 | 19.3% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 76 | 11.9% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 74 | 11.6% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 62 | 9.7% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 36 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Other | 29 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 28 | 4.4% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 24 | 3.8% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 18 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 16 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 152 | 23.8% |
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 Sulphur mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 319 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 35 | 5.5% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 35 | 5.5% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 28 | 4.4% | |
| 5 | Match | 24 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 18 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 18 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Lightning | 14 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 13 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 13 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 121 | 19.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Sulphur departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 76% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $180,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $150,000 | Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Sulphur sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
19 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 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 171,790 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 15,864 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 12,154 | 23.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Natural | 11,218 | 32.7 mi | |
| 1992 | Debris and open burning | 11,210 | 28.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Natural | 8,874 | 20.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Natural | 7,433 | 23.1 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 7,000 | 20.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 6,385 | 26.7 mi | |
| 2013 | Natural | 6,384 | 27.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 6,365 | 28.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 6,259 | 28.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 6,174 | 21.9 mi |
Top 8 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Louisiana cities with population within ±25% of Sulphur. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Sulphur.
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.