In 2025, fire departments serving Valley Grande responded to 17 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Forest, woods or wildland fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 88% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
33 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $50K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023* | 0 | — | |
| 2024 | 16 | — | |
| 2025 | 17 | +6.2% |
* Well below Valley Grande'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 0 building fires Valley Grande departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 27 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 | 21 | 77.8% | |
| 2 | Other | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 3 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 5 | Railroad right of way: on or near | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 3.7% |
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 Valley Grande mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 23 | 85.2% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 2 | 7.4% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 4 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 3.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Valley Grande departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Valley Grande sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 18,524 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 | 4,000 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,590 | 21.0 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,925 | 35.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,262 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | 721 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 657 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 565 | 31.0 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 525 | 27.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 475 | 14.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | 441 | 21.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 425 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 413 | 38.7 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 Alabama cities with population within ±25% of Valley Grande. 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.