In 2025, fire departments serving Thomasville responded to 72 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K 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 44% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
229 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $3.7M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 2 | — | |
| 2022* | 22 | — | |
| 2023 | 58 | — | |
| 2024 | 75 | +29.3% | |
| 2025 | 72 | -4.0% |
* Well below Thomasville'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 Thomasville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 157 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 | 139 | 88.5% | |
| 2 | Other | 4 | 2.5% | |
| 3 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 4 | 2.5% | |
| 4 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 0.6% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 0.6% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 0.6% | |
| 7 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 0.6% | |
| 8 | Switchgear area, transformer vault | 1 | 0.6% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 0.6% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 0.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 3 | 1.9% |
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 Thomasville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 141 | 89.8% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 5 | 3.2% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 1.3% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 1.3% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 1.3% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 1 | 0.6% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 0.6% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 0.6% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 1 | 0.6% | |
| 10 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 0.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Thomasville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 73% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $80,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $70,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $50,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $50,000 | Fire in mobile prop. used as a fixed struc., other | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $30,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Thomasville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 16,225 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,000 | 26.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,332 | 27.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 1,280 | 46.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,000 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 560 | 28.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 540 | 45.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 500 | 49.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 432 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 404 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 400 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Natural | 365 | 41.1 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 | 36784 | 229 |
Six Alabama cities with population within ±25% of Thomasville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Thomasville.
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.