In 2025, fire departments serving Texarkana responded to 534 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $175K 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 61% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,497 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $10.7M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 465 | — | |
| 2022 | 549 | +18.1% | |
| 2023 | 447 | -18.6% | |
| 2024 | 502 | +12.3% | |
| 2025 | 534 | +6.4% |
For the 80 building fires Texarkana departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 976 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 | 130 | 13.3% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 109 | 11.2% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 100 | 10.2% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 99 | 10.1% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 97 | 9.9% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 56 | 5.7% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 38 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Wall surface: exterior | 36 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 34 | 3.5% | |
| 10 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 19 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 258 | 26.4% |
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 Texarkana mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 515 | 52.8% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 69 | 7.1% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 63 | 6.5% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 39 | 4.0% | |
| 5 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 35 | 3.6% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 32 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Radiated heat from another fire | 29 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 21 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 20 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Heat source: other | 19 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 134 | 13.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Texarkana departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 52% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $175,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $162,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $85,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $70,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $50,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $50,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Texarkana sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
24 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 | 4 | |
| 20-29 | 5 | |
| 30-39 | 4 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 58,379 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 41,050 | 40.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,378 | 42.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,850 | 43.1 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,299 | 12.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,048 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 905 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 902 | 36.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 900 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 740 | 23.7 mi | |
| 2004 | Natural | 727 | 37.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Equipment and vehicle use | 665 | 37.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 640 | 41.2 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 Arkansas cities with population within ±25% of Texarkana. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Texarkana.
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.