In 2025, fire departments serving Tupelo responded to 408 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $2.0M 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 56% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,004 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $12.6M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 318 | — | |
| 2022 | 365 | +14.8% | |
| 2023 | 438 | +20.0% | |
| 2024 | 475 | +8.4% | |
| 2025 | 408 | -14.1% |
For the 49 building fires Tupelo departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 571 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 | 222 | 38.9% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 89 | 15.6% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 42 | 7.4% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 26 | 4.6% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 14 | 2.5% | |
| 6 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 13 | 2.3% | |
| 7 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 12 | 2.1% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 12 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 10 | 1.8% | |
| 10 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 10 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 121 | 21.2% |
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 Tupelo mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 390 | 68.3% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 31 | 5.4% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 28 | 4.9% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 24 | 4.2% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 20 | 3.5% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 11 | 1.9% | |
| 7 | Molten, hot material | 10 | 1.8% | |
| 8 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 10 | 1.8% | |
| 9 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 10 | 1.8% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 7 | 1.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 30 | 5.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Tupelo departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 79% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $455,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $175,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $130,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $130,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $115,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Tupelo sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
8 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 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 16,949 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,826 | 40.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Smoking | 1,620 | 14.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,344 | 41.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,130 | 48.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1,092 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,005 | 38.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 1,000 | 33.6 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 891 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 608 | 33.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 537 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 500 | 48.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 475 | 47.7 mi |
Top 4 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 Tupelo. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Tupelo.
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.