In 2025, fire departments serving Thomasville responded to 183 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K 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 57% of all calls.
Nov peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,198 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $4.1M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 155 | — | |
| 2022 | 318 | +105.2% | |
| 2023 | 280 | -11.9% | |
| 2024 | 262 | -6.4% | |
| 2025 | 183 | -30.2% |
For the 24 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 366 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 68 | 18.6% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 54 | 14.8% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 39 | 10.7% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 31 | 8.5% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 27 | 7.4% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 17 | 4.6% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 12 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 12 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 11 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 10 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 85 | 23.2% |
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 | 161 | 44.0% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 39 | 10.7% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 29 | 7.9% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 28 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 14 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 13 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 8 | 2.2% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 8 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Molten, hot material | 8 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Lightning | 7 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 51 | 13.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Thomasville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 72% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $98,944 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $80,327 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $56,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $33,488 | Grass fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Thomasville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
7 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 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 21,533 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 6,675 | 48.0 mi | |
| 1992 | Natural | 2,200 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 2,065 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 1,356 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 793 | 49.6 mi | |
| 1993 | Natural | 702 | 35.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 630 | 41.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 602 | 40.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 563 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 542 | 8.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Natural | 521 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Natural | 484 | 46.0 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 Georgia cities with population within ±25% of Thomasville. 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.