In 2025, fire departments serving Trinity responded to 135 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $15K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Authorized controlled burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 53% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
446 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $791K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 115 | — | |
| 2022 | 110 | -4.3% | |
| 2023* | 32 | — | |
| 2024 | 54 | — | |
| 2025 | 135 | +150.0% |
* Well below Trinity'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 14 building fires Trinity departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 194 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 | Outside area, other | 40 | 20.6% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 34 | 17.5% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 28 | 14.4% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 16 | 8.2% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 15 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 10 | 5.2% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 9 | 4.6% | |
| 8 | Other | 7 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Storage area, other | 6 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 4 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 25 | 12.9% |
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 Trinity mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 93 | 47.9% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 14 | 7.2% | |
| 3 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 10 | 5.2% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 9 | 4.6% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 8 | 4.1% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 7 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 7 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 6 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 6 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 29 | 14.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Trinity departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 97% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $15,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $5,000 | Forest, woods or wildland fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $5,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $1,500 | Fire in mobile prop. used as a fixed struc., other | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $1,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $1,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Trinity sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,446 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 675 | 41.6 mi | |
| 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 500 | 33.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 363 | 38.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 330 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 289 | 45.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 214 | 15.3 mi | |
| 1993 | Natural | 200 | 48.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 180 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 161 | 17.1 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 24.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 115 | 28.5 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six North Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Trinity. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Trinity.
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.