In 2025, fire departments serving Tuscaloosa responded to 732 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K 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 39% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,443 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $10.1M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 775 | — | |
| 2022 | 686 | -11.5% | |
| 2023 | 590 | -14.0% | |
| 2024 | 660 | +11.9% | |
| 2025 | 732 | +10.9% |
For the 67 building fires Tuscaloosa departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,879 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 | 440 | 23.4% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 228 | 12.1% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 226 | 12.0% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 193 | 10.3% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 85 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Other | 79 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 63 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 49 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 44 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 31 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 441 | 23.5% |
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 Tuscaloosa mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 1,003 | 53.4% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 141 | 7.5% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 115 | 6.1% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 106 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 92 | 4.9% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 67 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 64 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 46 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 32 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 27 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 186 | 9.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Tuscaloosa departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 59% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $225,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $220,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Tuscaloosa sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
21 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 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 5 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 21,918 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 2,950 | 28.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,784 | 18.0 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,590 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,925 | 23.4 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,262 | 16.4 mi | |
| 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | 721 | 16.5 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 700 | 36.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 660 | 37.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 631 | 33.2 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 625 | 37.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 597 | 31.0 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 525 | 31.6 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Alabama cities with population within ±25% of Tuscaloosa. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Tuscaloosa.
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.