In 2025, fire departments serving Vaiden responded to 26 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $58K 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 92% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
47 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $73K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023 | 14 | — | |
| 2024 | 7 | -50.0% | |
| 2025 | 26 | +271.4% |
* Well below Vaiden'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 1 building fires Vaiden departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 31 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 | 25 | 80.6% | |
| 2 | Other | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 3 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 5 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 3.2% |
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 Vaiden mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 26 | 83.9% | |
| 2 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 6.5% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 4 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 5 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 3.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Vaiden departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $58,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Vaiden sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 15,131 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 5,208 | 14.7 mi | |
| 2013 | Natural | 700 | 29.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 626 | 24.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 600 | 43.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 510 | 39.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 475 | 19.9 mi | |
| 1998 | Debris and open burning | 473 | 31.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 472 | 25.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 450 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 416 | 28.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 18.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 49.2 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 39176 | 47 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Vaiden. 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.