In 2025, fire departments serving Surfside Beach responded to 153 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $75K 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 50% of all calls.
Nov peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
550 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $3.4M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 48 | — | |
| 2022 | 120 | — | |
| 2023 | 113 | -5.8% | |
| 2024 | 116 | +2.7% | |
| 2025 | 153 | +31.9% |
* Well below Surfside Beach'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 16 building fires Surfside Beach departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 133 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 | 26 | 19.5% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 14 | 10.5% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 12 | 9.0% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 8 | 6.0% | |
| 5 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 6 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Wall surface: exterior | 5 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 5 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 5 | 3.8% | |
| 9 | Other | 4 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 4 | 3.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 44 | 33.1% |
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 Surfside Beach mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 63 | 47.4% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 22 | 16.5% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 11 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 7 | 5.3% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 5 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 3.0% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Lightning | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 10 | 7.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Surfside Beach departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 87% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $40,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $12,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $10,000 | Camper or recreational vehicle (RV) fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Surfside Beach sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 40,996 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 19,130 | 15.0 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,150 | 16.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,466 | 40.3 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,911 | 18.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 1,648 | 7.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,600 | 41.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Fireworks | 1,155 | 11.5 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 1,089 | 9.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 856 | 36.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 844 | 6.9 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 767 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 765 | 36.6 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 South Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Surfside Beach. 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.