In 2025, fire departments serving Ventress responded to 24 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $30K 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 71% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
81 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $165K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 3 | — | |
| 2022* | 3 | — | |
| 2023 | 22 | — | |
| 2024 | 29 | +31.8% | |
| 2025 | 24 | -17.2% |
* Well below Ventress'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 4 building fires Ventress departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 37 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 14 | 37.8% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 8.1% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 3 | 8.1% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 3 | 8.1% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 2 | 5.4% | |
| 6 | Vacant structural area | 2 | 5.4% | |
| 7 | Entrance way, lobby | 1 | 2.7% | |
| 8 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 6 | 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 Ventress mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 18 | 48.6% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 5 | 13.5% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 2 | 5.4% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 5.4% | |
| 5 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 5.4% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 2.7% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 2.7% | |
| 8 | Incendiary device | 1 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Match | 1 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 1 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 3 | 8.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Ventress departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,000 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Ventress sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 11,609 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 4,110 | 36.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,295 | 44.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 570 | 45.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 491 | 46.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 453 | 46.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 450 | 44.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 408 | 43.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 | 41.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Smoking | 360 | 44.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 260 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 230 | 16.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 220 | 49.8 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 Louisiana cities with population within ±25% of Ventress. 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.