In 2025, fire departments serving Tunica responded to 56 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $300K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 64% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
281 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $2.6M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 68 | — | |
| 2022* | 18 | — | |
| 2023 | 83 | — | |
| 2024 | 56 | -32.5% | |
| 2025 | 56 | +0.0% |
* Well below Tunica'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 8 building fires Tunica departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 173 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 | 83 | 48.0% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 17 | 9.8% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 11 | 6.4% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 8 | 4.6% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 6 | 3.5% | |
| 6 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 5 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 4 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 4 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Outside area, other | 4 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 3 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 28 | 16.2% |
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 Tunica mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 112 | 64.7% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 16 | 9.2% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 8 | 4.6% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 8 | 4.6% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 1.7% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 1.7% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 3 | 1.7% | |
| 8 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 3 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Heat source: other | 2 | 1.2% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 1.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 13 | 7.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Tunica departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 90% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $300,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $80,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $75,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $30,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $20,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Tunica sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 10,789 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 | 1,200 | 36.3 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 870 | 49.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 750 | 25.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 720 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 637 | 21.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 636 | 42.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 500 | 44.5 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 485 | 48.1 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 49.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 375 | 44.9 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 328 | 28.9 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 Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Tunica. 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.