In 2025, fire departments serving Taylors responded to 358 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 53% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,919 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $7.9M cumulative property loss. 5 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 376 | — | |
| 2022 | 366 | -2.7% | |
| 2023 | 379 | +3.6% | |
| 2024 | 440 | +16.1% | |
| 2025 | 358 | -18.6% |
For the 26 building fires Taylors departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 423 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 79 | 18.7% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 50 | 11.8% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 48 | 11.3% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 40 | 9.5% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 30 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 23 | 5.4% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 14 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 13 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Railroad right of way: on or near | 11 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 10 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 105 | 24.8% |
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 Taylors mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 198 | 46.8% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 37 | 8.7% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 25 | 5.9% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 20 | 4.7% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 18 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 17 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 15 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 12 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Heat source: other | 10 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 10 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 61 | 14.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Taylors departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 83% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $102,240 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $80,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $30,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $17,032 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Taylors sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
16 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 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 29,893 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 10,623 | 25.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 7,913 | 37.5 mi | |
| 2001 | Debris and open burning | 2,235 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,477 | 33.2 mi | |
| 1993 | Natural | 1,050 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 740 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 524 | 35.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 493 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Recreation and ceremony | 468 | 29.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 407 | 39.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Recreation and ceremony | 351 | 20.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 330 | 32.8 mi |
Top 7 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 Taylors. 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.