In 2025, fire departments serving Summit responded to 74 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 66% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
386 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $3.3M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 66 | — | |
| 2022* | 45 | — | |
| 2023 | 122 | — | |
| 2024 | 79 | -35.2% | |
| 2025 | 74 | -6.3% |
* Well below Summit'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 7 building fires Summit departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 208 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 | 141 | 67.8% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 16 | 7.7% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 12 | 5.8% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 7 | 3.4% | |
| 5 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 6 | 2.9% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 3 | 1.4% | |
| 7 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 3 | 1.4% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 3 | 1.4% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 2 | 1.0% | |
| 10 | Function area, other | 2 | 1.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 13 | 6.2% |
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 Summit mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 164 | 78.8% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 10 | 4.8% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 9 | 4.3% | |
| 4 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 7 | 3.4% | |
| 5 | Lightning | 4 | 1.9% | |
| 6 | Match | 3 | 1.4% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 1.0% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 1.0% | |
| 9 | Fireworks | 2 | 1.0% | |
| 10 | Radiated heat from another fire | 2 | 1.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 3 | 1.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Summit departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 95% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $175,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $75,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $45,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $30,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Outside equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Summit sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 15,377 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 4,109 | 43.6 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 1,200 | 5.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 623 | 12.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 622 | 9.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 600 | 29.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 570 | 29.5 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 550 | 45.4 mi | |
| 1998 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 49.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 491 | 35.7 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 486 | 35.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 480 | 39.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 453 | 40.8 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 | 39666 | 386 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Summit. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Summit.
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.