In 2025, fire departments serving Sunflower responded to 16 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1 building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 100% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
48 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $8 cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 13 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023 | 12 | — | |
| 2024 | 7 | -41.7% | |
| 2025 | 16 | +128.6% |
* Well below Sunflower'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 9 building fires Sunflower departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 19 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 | 15 | 78.9% | |
| 2 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 3 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 4 | Stage area - performance, basketball court, boxing | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 5.3% |
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 Sunflower mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 19 | 100.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Sunflower departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Sunflower sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,267 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Debris and open burning | 473 | 40.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 29.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 300 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 279 | 27.3 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 265 | 26.4 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 250 | 39.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 250 | 42.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 210 | 15.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 205 | 39.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 190 | 40.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 188 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 180 | 40.0 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 | 38778 | 48 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Sunflower. 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.